Washington, DC – Congressman Adam B. Schiff has introduced legislation to prevent nuclear material from falling into the hands of terrorists. The bill, H.R. 4212, creates a Presidential Task Force within the Department of Energy to focus on an immediate strategy to secure nuclear material around the world. Identical legislation has been introduced in the Senate by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Jack Reed (D-RI).
“There are large stockpiles of nuclear material that remain poorly secured,” said Rep. Schiff. “Every effort must be made to secure and destroy these materials before they fall into the wrong hands. This is an urgent priority and a grave threat to the United States. We went to war to find and destroy stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. How can we fail to take aggressive steps to eliminate a similar threat in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere? The Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program gives us that opportunity - but has not had the requisite sense of urgency and organization. This bill would help change that.”
The State Department has identified 24 “high priority” sites where such material is known to be at risk of being stolen and used in a terrorist plot. However, the State Department does not have a comprehensive strategy for reducing this risk by removing these materials.
Specifically, the Schiff bill:
- Establishes a presidential task force on nuclear removal, to be based in the Department of Energy;
- Provides that the task force would work with other countries to remove nuclear materials from vulnerable sites around the world as quickly as possible
- Authorizes $40 million in FY 2005 for such efforts, to include purchasing, transporting, and managing nuclear material; providing interim security upgrades; converting high-enriched uranium sites to the use of low-enriched uranium fuels; assisting in the closure and decommissioning of such sites; and providing incentives to facilitate the removal of such materials from vulnerable facilities.
Without immediate action, it could take 20 years to reach the level of security called for in this legislation. “That could be too late,” said Schiff. “We must take steps now to secure this material.”
In March 2003, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University released a report describing a scenario in which a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb is smuggled into Manhattan and detonated. The report showed that such an attack would result in the loss of 500,000 people and $1 trillion in direct economic damage.
Schiff has led several Congressional efforts to secure vulnerable stockpiles of weapons materials. In May 2003, he introduced legislation (H.R.2063) to expand the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program to include countries outside the former Soviet Union such as Pakistan, India, North Korea, China, Iran and Iraq. He also joined Rep. John Spratt (D-SC) in offering an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act in May 2003 to strengthen the United States' efforts to safeguard or destroy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and related materials around the world.
Rep. Schiff is the co-founder of the Democratic Study Group on National Security and a member of both the House Judiciary and International Relations Committees. He represents California’s 29th Congressional District, including the communities of Alhambra, Altadena, Burbank, East Pasadena, East San Gabriel, Glendale, Monterey Park, Pasadena, San Gabriel, South Pasadena and Temple City.