CTR Unfunded

Every year, minority lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee ask the Defense Department to produce a list of programs that did not get full funding in the department's annual budget request. This year, however, Defense Secretary Robert Gates sought to shake up that long-standing budget ritual by asserting his prerogative, as Pentagon chief, to review any unfunded requirements lists the services might prepare before transmitting them to Congress.

The Cooperative Threat Reduction program co-managed by the Defense and Energy departments has not been included in past unfunded priorities lists, but at least one lawmaker would like to see it on the list.

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing today on threats from weapons of mass destruction, Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA) asked Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs Michael Nacht what the CTR program could do with additional funds above and beyond what is vetted by DOD and DOE. Here's the ensuing exchange:

NACHT: I think additional funds could help, but . . . we've been very careful not to go to the committee or the Congress for requests for funds that we know we can't use effectively. . . . So we don't have a list, really, of unfunded priorities . . . but if you're urging us to do it, we could develop it.

MARSHALL: That would be great if you would develop it; we may not fund it, but it would be nice to know what additional steps -- where would you go from where you are right now.

NACHT: Sir, we'll follow up on that with ((DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration)).