5/21/12 Home / Publications / News www PGS Printer Friendly Page   NBC News MEET THE PRESS Sunday, November 18, 2001 Transcript excerpt of exchange between Tim Russert and Condoleezza Rice on Bush Administration support and funding for Nunn-Lugar. (The entire transcript can be found on-line at: www.msnbc.com/news/658900.asp)* .... MR. RUSSERT: A lot of concern about nuclear weapons falling into thewrong hands. Congress approved a Nunn-Lugar bill after former Senator SamNunn, current Senator Richard Lugar, which would monitor just where thenuclear materials in Russia are going. Your administration cut that program by$1 million. In light of what has happened since September 11, will you reinstatethat funding? DR. RICE: That funding was not cut. We have, in fact, been verysupportive of the Nunn-Lugar program. All the way back in the campaign, thepresident talked about perhaps even increasing funding for programs of this kind.We did a review of the programs. We believe a number of them are extremelyimportant and are working very, very well. We want to reorganize some. Butmost importantly, the money is a function of the spend factor. The money is afunction of how much money is needed in any given year to actually carry outthe programs that are planned. So this is a budget actual, if you will, not a cut infunding. MR. RUSSERT: But you will continue to invest in that program? DR. RICE: We believe this is a very important program. In fact, PresidentPutin and President Bush again committed to the importance of these kinds ofprograms in their summit. .... *Please note that the transcript available at this site is a rush transcript provided for the information and convenience of the press. Accuracy is not guaranteed. In case of doubt, please check with MEET THE PRESS - NBC NEWS, (202)885-4598.

© 2007 Partnership for Global Security. All rights reserved. Privacy Statement.