John Spratt: “before mentioning my amendment, let me also commend the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from…”

“before mentioning my amendment, let me also commend the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Murtha), the chairman of the subcommittee and the ranking member. There are not two Members of the House for whom I have greater respect. This is a good bill. I intend to support it. But I have an amendment which I think will make it a better bill. My amendment is simple and it is straightforward. It would take $84 million in funding for missile defense that is not needed and add it to an area where it is woefully in need, to the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear materials. Everyone here remembers the first debate between Senator Kerry and President Bush last year. They agreed on one thing for sure, that the gravest threat facing the United States is that of terrorists armed with nuclear weapons. Our front line in the defense of this threat is variously called Cooperative Threat Reduction, nonproliferation, or Nunn-Lugar. Whatever we call it, its object is to stop, secure, and dispose of nuclear weapons and nuclear materials at the source if at all possible. I referred to the President. Just this past February, he met with the President of the Russian Federation, and together they cited the fact that nuclear nonproliferation is a matter of compelling importance for both countries. Five years ago we appointed a bipartisan commission headed by Howard Baker and Lloyd Cutler.…”