The Hill News

Imagine a raging civil war against an autocrat with a history of supporting extreme terrorist acts in a country where nuclear weapons fuel was caught in the crossfire. That would be Libya today if the U.S. had not funded the removal of highly enriched uranium from that country in 2004.

That is why it makes no sense for the Congress to be debating how much to cut the budget for the programs that protect, remove and eliminate these nuclear materials in vulnerable locations around the world. But they are doing it anyway. 

The House wants to cut $600 million, the Senate $300 million. The nuclear nonproliferation budget they are debating is less than $3 billion and about one-third of that is for a new facility being built in South Carolina. So, the squabble is over spending that amounts to just 0.2 percent of the $700 billion in defense expenditures that is currently off limits from any reductions.

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