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U.S. Still Supports CTBT Organization, Rice Says By David Ruppe WASHINGTON — A proposed, 30-percent cut to the U.S. contribution to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization for fiscal 2006 does not indicate reduced support by the Bush administration, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently told a congressional committee (see GSN, May 26). The administration this year budgeted $14.35 million for the organization for fiscal 2006. The United States was expected to pay about $22 million. The Vienna-based organization’s budget, approved last year by member states, is $105 million for calendar year 2005. The annual U.S. contribution usually covers 22 percent of the total. In this case, it would cover about 14 percent. In recent correspondence to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee obtained by Global Security Newswire, Rice said the proposed reduction did not signal reduced U.S. support for the organization, but rather resulted from budget pressures. “The $7.65 million cut in funding for the International Monitoring System (IMS) does not signal a change in U.S. policy toward the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT),” she wrote. “The U.S. continues to support and participate in those activities of the Preparatory Commission for the CTBT Organization (CTBTO PrepCom) in Vienna that pertain to the IMS, and the U.S. has no plans to press the PrepCom to lower its budget to a level commensurate with the $14.35 million that the administration has allocated for it in FY’06,” she wrote. The House Appropriations Committee last week approved the reduced funding level as part of its version of the fiscal 2006 Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to begin considering its version this week. Since its creation 1996, the Test Ban Treaty Organization has overseen the construction of the International Monitoring System, a global network of monitoring stations for detecting and analyzing possible nuclear weapons testing that would be banned by the treaty. The international norm against testing has grown quickly; 175 nations have signed the treaty, with 121 also ratifying the pact. While President Bill Clinton signed the treaty in 1996, the Senate in 1999 narrowly defeated U.S. ratification. The United States is one of 11 remaining countries for which ratification is required before the treaty enters into force. Bush administration officials have said they would not resubmit the treaty for ratification. They say the administration opposes the treaty, and reserves the option to test again. The White House has, though, maintained a U.S. moratorium on testing that has been in place for 13 years and said they support constructing the international monitoring system. Budget Pressures Cited Rice and other officials said the budget reduction was not the result of a State Department policy change, but rather, part of a budget savings effort by the White House Office of Management and Budget. “Unfortunately, budgets are very tight and cuts had to be made, even among programs supported by the administration,” Rice wrote. “A number of other cuts were made in the department’s program requests, including in the areas of nonproliferation and counterterrorism. The level of funding for a program in any given year’s budget does not necessarily have a bearing on the funding level for that program in the succeeding years,” she wrote. The House Appropriations Committee’s cut to the program corresponds with a 10-percent net cut it approved for fiscal 2006 to the State Department’s entire “nonproliferation, antiterrorism, demining and related programs” account through which the U.S. dues are paid, according to an analysis by the Friends Committee. Rice’s comments were provided in response to a question by Senator Joseph Biden (Del.), ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, at a February hearing on the State Department budget. Regarding the Test Ban Treaty Organization, Biden said then: “Now your budget justification calls this, ‘a key element in our global effort against the proliferation of nuclear weapons,’ [and] ‘an important supplement to U.S. monitoring capabilities.’ So my question is, ‘Why are we cutting it? We’re not talking about a lot of money here.” “The impact of this type of reduction in the U.S. contribution can have a highly negative cumulative effect. It will make it more difficult for the CTBTO Prepcom to secure full contributions from other states over time,” said Arms Control Association Executive Director Daryl Kimball. “The Bush administration is smart to continue to contribute to the CTBTO because the international monitoring system does provide valuable intelligence information and monitoring capabilities that the U.S. national intelligence community simply cannot provide,” he said.
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