[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 12 (Tuesday, February 8, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E187]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    INTRODUCTION OF THE ``OMNIBUS NONPROLIFERATION AND ANTI-NUCLEAR 
                        TERRORISM ACT OF 2005''

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 8, 2005

  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 senior U.S. Government officials were evacuated, 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 the number one national security threat facing this country. 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.
  We agree with the President and the Attorney General, and we share 
the conviction of almost every expert in and out of government who has 
looked at this problem: If we do not act now to secure existing nuclear 
material and weapons, as well as the expertise needed to build them, a 
nuclear terrorist attack on the United States is only a matter of time.
  We have consulted with a range of experts to produce a comprehensive 
set of policies that we believe will be effective in enabling the 
United States to prevent what Graham Allison of Harvard University has 
termed ``the ultimate preventable catastrophe.''
  Today, my colleague, Mr. Shays and I, are introducing the ``Omnibus 
Nonproliferation and Anti-Nuclear Terrorism Act of 2005'' which lays 
out a comprehensive plan to overhaul our nonproliferation program.
  As with America's intelligence programs, nonproliferation and 
disarmament programs are spread across the United States government. 
Thus, the centerpiece of our proposal, is the creation of 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.

  We need to modernize the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, 
created by Senator Richard Lugar and Former Senator Sam Nunn, by giving 
more flexibility to the President to carry out nonproliferation 
projects outside the former Soviet Union and by reducing red tape.
  The most vulnerable nuclear sites around the world must be secure. 
Our bill enhances the Global Threat Reduction Initiative announced last 
year by former Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham.
  We also propose a number of multilateral and bilateral efforts to 
secure nuclear material. In order to prevent another A.Q. Kahn 
``nuclear supermarket,'' we urge the President to expand and strengthen 
his Proliferation Security Initiative to interdict the shipment of 
nuclear material. We also recommend that the President work with the 
international community to develop and implement standards to improve 
the security of nuclear weapons and materials and to explore ways to 
strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
  We must address the vulnerability to theft of the Russian tactical 
nuclear arsenal, and our legislation authorizes the Department of 
Energy to assist Russia in conducting a comprehensive inventory of its 
tactical weapons.
  The President's authority to fund non-defense research by Russian WMD 
scientists must be expanded so these scientists would not be tempted to 
sell their secrets to North Korea, Iran or al Qaeda.
  As the nation grappled with the attacks of September 11, we 
repeatedly 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 one considers the consequences, the choice is really no choice at 
all.

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