[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 8 (Tuesday, February 1, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H261-H262]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    OMNIBUS NONPROLIFERATION AND ANTI-NUCLEAR TERRORISM ACT OF 2005

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, early on the morning of October 11, 2001, as 
lower Manhattan still lay smoldering, President Bush was told by George 
Tenet, the Director of Central Intelligence, that a CIA agent was 
reporting that al Qaeda terrorists armed with a stolen Russian nuclear 
weapon were loose in New York City.
  The threat was not made public for fear it would cause mass panic, 
but it precipitated an evacuation of hundreds of senior U.S. Government 
officials, including Vice-President Cheney, to a series of undisclosed 
locations away from the capital. Nuclear Emergency Search Teams were 
dispatched to New York to look for the weapon, reportedly a 10 kiloton 
warhead that could have killed at least 100,000 people if it were 
detonated in Manhattan.
  Thankfully, the CIA report turned out to be untrue, but the danger we 
face from nuclear terrorism is all too real. Osama bin Laden has termed 
the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction ``a religious duty,'' 
while his press spokesman has announced that al Qaeda aspires to kill 4 
million Americans, including 1 million children.
  President Bush has deemed a nuclear terrorist attack on the United 
States

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as the number one national security threat facing this country. Last 
week, in a valedictory interview with the Associated Press, Attorney 
General John Ashcroft also singled out the danger to America posed by 
terrorists armed with nuclear weapons.
  I agree with the President and the Attorney General. I also share the 
conviction of almost every expert in and out of government who has 
looked at this problem that if we do not act now to secure existing 
nuclear material and weapons, as well as the expertise needed to build 
new weapons, a nuclear terrorist attack on the United States is only a 
matter of time.
  Mr. Speaker, I will be introducing the Omnibus Nuclear 
Nonproliferation and Anti-Nuclear Terrorism Act of 2005 to better 
enable the United States to prevent what Graham Allison of Harvard 
University has termed ``the ultimate preventable catastrophe.'' I am 
pleased to announce that several of my colleagues will be joining me as 
co-sponsors.
  Over the past several months I have consulted with a range of experts 
to produce a range of policies that I believe will be effective and 
which can be implemented quickly, as time is of the essence and time is 
not on our side.
  First, the bill creates an Office of Nonproliferation Programs within 
the Executive Office of the President to coordinate and oversee 
America's efforts to prevent terrorists from gaining access to nuclear 
weapons and to manage the effort to secure existing nuclear material in 
the former Soviet Union and other places.
  The bill expands the ability of the President to carry out the 
Cooperative Threat Reduction programs both in the former Soviet Union 
and elsewhere.
  It will enhance the Global Threat Reduction Initiative announced by 
Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, our former Secretary, last May to 
advance the global cleanout of the most vulnerable stockpiles of 
nuclear weapons materials.
  The legislation calls on the President to expand and strengthen his 
Proliferation Security Initiative to interdict the shipment of nuclear 
material.
  My bill also urges the President to work with other nations and 
international organizations to develop and implement standards to 
improve the security of nuclear weapons and materials.
  It authorizes the Department of Energy to assist Russia in conducting 
a comprehensive inventory of its tactical weapons and requires reports 
to Congress on those efforts.
  My bill will also expand the President's authority to fund non-
defense research by Russian WMD scientists so these scientists would 
not be tempted to sell their secrets to North Korea, Iran or al Qaeda.
  Finally, the bill will require the President to report on ways to 
strengthen the Non-proliferation Treaty by more effectively controlling 
nuclear technology and material and by mobilizing the international 
community to close the loophole in Article IV of the treaty.
  Mr. Speaker, as the Nation and this Congress grappled with the 
attacks of September 11, we asked ourselves how we could have failed to 
foresee the danger posed by al Qaeda and taken steps to prevent 9/11. 
We know about the danger of nuclear terrorism. We have been warned 
repeatedly. We are in a race with terrorists who are actively seeking 
nuclear weapons. The choice is ours. We can continue doing what we are 
doing now and risk an almost inevitable nuclear attack or we can take 
action to prevent it. When you consider the consequences, Mr. Speaker, 
the choice is really no choice at all.

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