House of Representatives 1998 Energy and Water Appropriations Act
The House adopted the 1998 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, H.R.2203, on July 25, 1997. Overall, the bill reduces Nunn-Lugar fundinglevels requested by the President by $34.6 million. Included in the cutsare $20 million from Nonproliferation and Verification Research andDevelopment programs and $14.6 million from Initiatives for ProliferationPrevention. Full funding of $137.008 for Material Protection, Control andAccounting, however, was approved. This amount equals a $24.371 millionincrease over FY97 levels.
Funding constraints were presented as the principal reason behindreductions in the Research and Development programs. Total amounts approved were $190 million. The Appropriations Committee recommended thatthe $20 million reduction should come from costs associated withcontractors and management detailed at Department of Energy Headquarters.
The amount approved for IPP was roughly half of what was requested by thePresident. IPP works to refigure defense industries in the former SovietUnion towards civilian commercial production. H.R. 2203 appropriates $15million for these activities.
The Appropriations Committee report concluded that too little of theamounts approved for these programs were actually reaching the peoplethe U.S. was trying to help. They noted that a large percentage of thefunds went to the U.S. National Laboratories or were siphoned off byduties and regional taxes. Consequently, the bill requires a detailedauditing report of IPP appropriated funds for FY96, 97, and estimated for1998. Included in the report must be a "listing of all duties, taxes, andoverhead charges paid by the program in each country, the number ofindividual Russian scientists who are funded through the program, and anaccurate accounting of the annual amount which actually ends up in thepaycheck of an individual Russian scientist."
