- News>
- World
US House panel cuts Bush`s nuclear weapons research funds
Washington, July 16: In a surprise break with the Bush administration, the Republican-led US House of Representatives is moving to scale back a nuclear weapons development plan that includes research into new `bunker-busting` nuclear warheads.
Washington, July 16: In a surprise break with the Bush administration, the Republican-led US House of Representatives is moving to scale back a nuclear weapons development plan that includes research into new "bunker-busting" nuclear warheads.
The appropriations committee approved a spending bill yesterday that excluded $ 51 million the energy department has considered essential for the new nuclear weapons research programs for the fiscal year beginning October 1.
The money had been stripped from the legislation by a subcommittee, and no effort was made yesterday to restore it as part of a 27.1 billion dollar bill to provide money for the energy department and other programs.
Republican Rep. David Hobson, chairman of the subcommittee that removed the funds, said the spending requests failed to reflect a post-cold war era where the country`s nuclear weapons stockpile was being reduced.
"Unfortunately, the department of energy continues to ask Congress to fund a cold war nuclear arsenal, and the nuclear weapons complex necessary to maintain that arsenal, even though we no longer face a cold war adversary," said Hobson.
His Republican-led panel - cut all but $5 million from the $15 million the Bush administration has requested to study the development of an earth-penetrating nuclear warhead, a so-called bunker-buster the administration has been promoting for months.
Bureau Report
The money had been stripped from the legislation by a subcommittee, and no effort was made yesterday to restore it as part of a 27.1 billion dollar bill to provide money for the energy department and other programs.
Republican Rep. David Hobson, chairman of the subcommittee that removed the funds, said the spending requests failed to reflect a post-cold war era where the country`s nuclear weapons stockpile was being reduced.
"Unfortunately, the department of energy continues to ask Congress to fund a cold war nuclear arsenal, and the nuclear weapons complex necessary to maintain that arsenal, even though we no longer face a cold war adversary," said Hobson.
His Republican-led panel - cut all but $5 million from the $15 million the Bush administration has requested to study the development of an earth-penetrating nuclear warhead, a so-called bunker-buster the administration has been promoting for months.
Bureau Report