Press Releases

Congressman Jim Banks (IN-03), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, today introduced a bill to update the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, an initiative based on legislation authored by Senators Sam Nunn (D-GA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) in 1991 to dismantle nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in former Soviet states.

The Banks bill would ensure the effectiveness of the Nunn-Lugar program continues by directing federal research to examine future threats and how well the Nunn-Lugar program is structured to deal with them.

“As I saw firsthand during a recent trip to Eastern Europe, the Nunn-Lugar program has been a huge success and made our world a safer place,” Banks said. “The Nunn-Lugar program was established in 1991, but the threats we face have changed significantly since then. I want to ensure this program remains as effective today as it was when Senator Lugar originally established it in the 1990s. My bill would direct a study to look at the program’s structure to determine if it has evolved properly to address today’s threats. Updating the Nunn-Lugar program is an important way we can address the security threats we face today around the globe.”

Background:

The Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program funds the dismantling of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and delivery systems in former Soviet states. It was a resounding success throughout the 1990’s and made the world a safer place by reducing nuclear weapons.

In more recent years, the program secured chemical weapons after the fall of the Gadhafi regime in Libya in 2013 and removed similar weapons from Syria in 2014. However, the program and leadership structure remains largely the same as the early 1990s, when its primary focus was nuclear warheads. The world and the weapons used by threats around the globe have changed significantly since then. The threats of tomorrow will be different from those the Nunn-Lugar program was initially designed to confront.

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Interested members of the media may contact Anna Swick at anna.swick@mail.house.gov.