On the recordMay 17, 2012
This is a classic ``cutting off your nose to spite your face'' amendment. We are all very upset by the fact that Russia continues to be supportive of the Assad regime, but cutting off funds from the Defense Threat Reduction Program is not going to hurt Russia; it's going to hurt us. The purpose of the Defense Threat Reduction Program, as the name would imply, is to reduce the threat. This was part of the broad nonproliferation effort, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, to set up a cooperative working agreement to try to control the weapons of mass destruction--nuclear, biological, chemical--that Russia has. This is a critically important program to stop proliferation and to make sure that these weapons of mass destruction don't wind up in the hands of terrorists and that they are actually controlled. So, as much as I want to see Russia change its policy towards Syria, cutting off this program to try to force it is not a good idea, and I urge opposition to the amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.
