Lugar-Obama Bill Seeks to Secure Weapons

The Lugar-Obama Act (S. 2566) passed out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last Tuesday, May 23rd, and will proceed to the Senate floor. The bill, sponsored by Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Barack Obama (D-IL) and co-sponsored by a bi-partisan group of 17 other senators, would provide $25 million in funding to prevent the proliferation of conventional weapons and $50 million to help US allies detect and interdict weapons and materials of mass destruction.

The bill has been modeled after the Nunn-Lugar Act of 1991, which established the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. Although the Nunn-Lugar Act sought to secure nuclear weapons, the Lugar-Obama Act would expand the concept to include securing conventional weapons stockpiles. Of particular concern is the proliferation of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles (Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems, or MANPADS) which could pose a serious threat to commercial airliners, military installations, and government facilities.

“The Lugar-Obama bill recognizes that the proliferation of conventional weapons is a major obstacle to peace, reconstruction, and economic development in regions suffering from conflict and instability,” Lugar said. “It calls upon the State Department to implement a global effort to seek out and destroy surplus and unguarded stocks of conventional armaments and to cooperate with allies and international organizations when possible.”

The bill also focuses on helping US allies to detect and interdict weapons and materials of mass destruction:

“The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is the number one national security threat that confronts the United States today,” Obama said. Under Senator Lugar’s leadership, the Nunn-Lugar program has safely disposed of literally thousands of weapons of mass destruction which, had they fallen into the wrong hands, could have been used against America with catastrophic results. The Lugar-Obama bill will build on this success by helping other nations find and eliminate conventional weapons that have been used against our own soldiers in Iraq and sought by terrorists all over the world.

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