Date: 2002-07-31
Speaker: CONDOLEEZZA RICE (democrat)
Chamber: S

Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. The White House. Washington. DC. DEAR DR. RICE: We write out of great concern over the current status of various projects in the NunnLugar Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR)Program at the Department of Defense. Final disposition has yet to be reached on an Administration request for permanent annual waiver authority relative to legislativelyimposed conditions requiring certification by the Executive branch in order to permit elements of the program to go forward. That will remain dependent on the outcome of a conference between the two houses of Congress on the FY 2003 Defense Authorization bill. Despite the Administrations difficulties in attempting to secure permanent waiver authority from the Congress in order to proceed with the overall NunnLugar/CTR program. we are encouraged that the Administration has continued to seek the waiver to the certification requirements. The same cannot be said with respect to the Administrations approach to the NunnLugar/CTR chemical weapons elimination project in Russia. Congressional conditionsabove and beyond those that apply to CTR in generalcontinue to stymie and delay construction of a chemical weapons destruction facility at Shchuchye. Russia. that is decidedly in the national security interests of the United States. A swift solution to the current stalemate is only possible with strong Administration leadership. The project at Shchuchye was reviewed by the Administration as part of its nonproliferation program review last year. In a Fact Sheet released December 27. 2001. the White House stated that: "The Department of Defense will seek to accelerate the Cooperative Threat Reduction project to construct a chemical weapons destruction facility at Shchuchye. to enable its earlier completion at no increased expense. We welcome the contributions that friends and allies have made to this project thus far. and will work for their enhancement." Unfortunately. little progress has been made in this direction. Several of us recently visited Shchuchye and have come to the conclusion that the U.S. needs to move forward expeditiously if we are to eliminate this critical proliferation threat. The depot houses nearly 2.000.000 modern groundlaunched chemical weapons. These artillery shells and SCUD missile warheads are in excellent working condition and many are small and easily transportable and could be deadly in the hands of terrorists. religious sects. or paramilitary units. We were told by our Russian hosts that the weapons stored at Shchuchye could kill the worlds population some twenty times over. The size and lethality of the weapons at Shchuchye are clearly a direct proliferation threat to the American people. Last year. the House of Representatives attached six conditions to the Shchuchye project. Of the original six conditions. four can be met but two continue to be problematic. The remaining conditions require the Secretary of Defense to certify that the information provided by Russia on the size of its chemical weapons stockpile is full and accurate and that Russia has developed a practical plan for destroying its stockpile of nerve agents. We share the goals associated with these conditions. but these same concerns prompted the Administration to seek a waiver to the larger certification requirements required under the NunnLugar program. Unfortunately. without a similar White House request for a waiver at Shchuchye. it is unlikely that the Pentagon will be able to begin construction of a facility to destroy these weapons in the foreseeable future. We urge the Administration to weigh in with conferees to the FY 2003 Defense Authorization bill to include a national security waiver of congressionallyimposed conditions on the spending of funds authorized for chemical weapons elimination under the NunnLugar program. As the war on terrorism continues we must ensure that terrorists do not intersect with weapons of mass destruction. Failure to begin destruction of the chemical weapons arsenal at Shchuchye would leave these dangerous. highly portable weapons in an unsafe and insecure location and vulnerable to proliferation. Construction could start tomorrow if Congress were to embrace the proper policy prescription. The Administrations plans to speed up implementation of this important NunnLugar project cannot coexist with the current Congressional conditions on the program. We urge you to provide vitally needed leadership to permit the Pentagon to begin dismantlement efforts. Without strong White House leadership we fear that progress will again be stymied and U.S. national security interests will suffer. We look forward to discussing this with you in the near future. Sincerely. Richard G. Lugar. U.S. Senator. Joseph R. Biden Jr.. U.S. Senator. Chris Shays. U.S. Representative. John Spratt. U.S. Representative. Pete Domeini. U.S. Senator. Jeff Bingaman. U.S. Senator. Ellen Taushcher. U.S. Representative. Bob Graham. U.S. Senator. Chuck Hagel. U.S. Senator. Vic Snyder. U.S. Representative.