The House Armed Services emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee is recommending full funding of the White House’s budget request for the Defense Department’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program.
HASC subcommittees held their first markups this week of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, including consideration of provisions related to the U.S. nuclear arsenal and other WMD-related operations.
The emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee released its mark Tuesday, one day before its markup. The document includes provisions for the CTR program that works worldwide to secure weapons of mass destruction and associated materials. The program began in the 1990s to prevent diversion of WMD materials throughout former Soviet territories and is considered a key part of U.S. nonproliferation activities.
The White House’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal included $324.6 million for CTR through Sept. 30, 2020. The HASC subcommittee mark would authorize the same amount to be obligated over the next three fiscal years.
Of that total, $12.1 million would go toward strategic offensive arms elimination; $5 million for chemical weapons destruction; $17.9 million for global nuclear security; $172.8 million for cooperative biological engagement; $89.8 million for proliferation prevention; and $27 million for other administrative costs.
Under the omnibus appropriations bill funding the government through the end of this fiscal year, CTR receives $325.6 million. Of that, $11.8 million goes toward the strategic offensive arms elimination account; $16.9 million for global nuclear security; and $50.7 million for WMD proliferation prevention.
The subcommittee during a Wednesday markup approved the document without any amendments, sending it to the full committee for consideration.
The full panel will conduct a markup of the fiscal 2018 NDAA on June 28. The document will set allowable spending levels for the Pentagon and Department of Energy national security activities, while actual funding will be established in separate appropriations bills.
The View from Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week during the annual Direct Line event that nonproliferation is the most promising area for cooperation between his nation and the United States: “We are the biggest nuclear powers and so our cooperation in this area is absolutely natural.”
Putin made his comments during a trying time for the two countries’ bilateral relations, marked in recent days by competing interests in the Syrian civil war, a new round of U.S. sanctions, and ongoing controversies over Russia’s influence in last year’s U.S. presidential election.
“We do not consider America our enemy,” Putin said during the program, however. “Russophobia” in the U.S., he said, “is primarily a result of the escalating political infighting.” He added that both governments “are extremely interested” in restoring their relationship.
The two nations’ nuclear security relationship has thinned in recent years, as Russian officials decided to conduct work on the physical security of nuclear material largely independently. The CTR program has been phased out in the nation, and more recently Russia withdrew from a bilateral agreement intended to dispose of 34 metric tons of weapon-usable plutonium on each side.
Current joint efforts largely center on nuclear fuel repatriations from third countries. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s former deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation said late last year that boosting partnerships between U.S. and Russian technical experts could play a major role in restoring bilateral ties, specifically through joint nuclear security work.
