|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Senate OKs Increased Nonproliferation Funding
The U.S. Senate yesterday approved a fiscal 2007 spending bill that preserves a more than $60 million increase in funding for two nuclear nonproliferation programs. Senators voted 81-15 to approve the bill as passed by the House of Representatives last month (see GSN, Feb.1). The House gave the International Nuclear Material Protection and Cooperation program a $50 million boost, to $472.7 million, when it passed its version of the stopgap spending bill in January. The original budget request for the program in this fiscal year, which began in October, was $413.2 million. The Global Threat Reduction Initiative also received additional support. Funded at $97 million in fiscal 2006, it received $115.5 million in the House spending plan. The fiscal 2007 budget request was $106.8 million (Jon Fox, Global Security Newswire, Feb. 15). The Senate bill also restores $42 million to this year’s budget for construction of a weapons disposal facility at the Pueblo Chemical Depot in The House cut the chemical weapons disposal funds for the “This is one more battle won in the long-standing effort to ensure that the necessary work to destroy the dangerous chemical weapons continues at Pueblo Depot,” said Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colo.). “I am very pleased that the U.S. Senate has approved Senator (Mitch) McConnell (R-Ky.) and my efforts to successfully push back the House’s decision to zero out critical funding for this project. We must keep our momentum. Today’s vote maintains that positive direction,” he added (John Norton, Pueblo Chieftain, Feb. 15). President George W. Bush has indicated that he would sign the $464 billion spending plan, the Associated Press reported (Andrew Taylor, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Feb. 14).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
