The Obama administration yesterday defended its proposal to cut nearly $140 million in payments for one agency's efforts to avoid the spread of nuclear weapons around the world. The National Nuclear Security Administration, a semiautonomous branch of the Energy Department, would get about $11.8 billion in fiscal 2012, an overall expenditure boost of 5 percent. That budget cycle starts on October 1. The White House spending plan asks for $2.5 billion for the agency's "protection nuclear nonproliferation" account, a more than 5 percent, or $138 million, reduce from the present budget cycle request. The program has oversight of the agency's different global efforts to prevent the extend of nuclear material.
Meanwhile, the agency's "weapons activities," which encompass all measures that directly sustain the nation's thermonuclear stockpile, would get $7.6 billion, an 8.9 percent boost from the still-unrealized fiscal 2011 proposal. "It's a shock to me that this budget is reduced," House Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee top Democrat Ed Pastor (Ariz.) said in his opening report during a hearing on the NNSA nonproliferation and naval reactor programs. "I'd like to realize why, given all the attention to securing fissile material, this account sees reduce when the remainder of NNSA is increasing."
Nonproliferation has been near the top of President Obama's policy program since an April 2009 speech in Prague in which he called for a world free of nuclear weapons. Obama last year assemble a two-day summit in Washington at which leaders from almost 50 nations pledged to secure the global stores of loose nuclear material within four years. "I look onward to hearing how this budget moves those efforts ahead," panel Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen said yesterday. Pastor asked whether the newest budget request show the administration is backing away from the president's ambitious pledge.
Meanwhile, the agency's "weapons activities," which encompass all measures that directly sustain the nation's thermonuclear stockpile, would get $7.6 billion, an 8.9 percent boost from the still-unrealized fiscal 2011 proposal. "It's a shock to me that this budget is reduced," House Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee top Democrat Ed Pastor (Ariz.) said in his opening report during a hearing on the NNSA nonproliferation and naval reactor programs. "I'd like to realize why, given all the attention to securing fissile material, this account sees reduce when the remainder of NNSA is increasing."
Nonproliferation has been near the top of President Obama's policy program since an April 2009 speech in Prague in which he called for a world free of nuclear weapons. Obama last year assemble a two-day summit in Washington at which leaders from almost 50 nations pledged to secure the global stores of loose nuclear material within four years. "I look onward to hearing how this budget moves those efforts ahead," panel Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen said yesterday. Pastor asked whether the newest budget request show the administration is backing away from the president's ambitious pledge.
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