59 



Mr. Weldon. Thank you, Ambassador. I just have a couple of 

 questions. I appreciate the work that has been done with the 

 money that we spent, and as the chairman of this subcommittee 

 have supported and will continue to support the administration in 

 requesting dollars. 



Unfortunately, in the past, while we have had the success of pri- 

 marily Senator Stevens putting money in, in this year's defense 

 bill, to my knowledge, there has been no money added and there 

 was no request from the administration. Therefore, we are looking 

 at a zero dollar amount for fiscal year 1996. That is unfortunate, 

 and it is troubling in light of what we have heard today. Do you 

 have any suggestions as to the administration planning on asking 

 for some reprogram dollars or something that we can do to help 

 prod some additional money in that area? 



Ambassador COLSON. Mr. Chairman, it is dangerous for me to 

 talk about money issues, but I think all of us that are interested 

 in these issues have to be mindful of the budget processes and to 

 fight our battles within them. Certainly, within the administration 

 process, we will again be revisiting this as we plan for fiscal year 

 1997 and we have not given up on trjdng to find some money at 

 least within the State Department to — the small grants program is 

 a very small program, but sometimes if you can bump something 

 with a $10,000 or $15,000 contribution, it really makes a dif- 

 ference. We will still be working within the Department so that 

 once we do have a budget, maybe we are able to have some of that 

 money. 



Mr. Weldon. I extend my offer to work with you in a bipartisan 

 mode to help accomplish that objective and to make sure that we 

 do not renege on the financial commitment necessary. I am willing 

 to stand up within my own party and make that case because I 

 think this is an extremely important priority for this country and 

 really for the world. 



The ONR has been, I guess, the lead agency in this. Is that satis- 

 factory from the State Department's standpoint in terms of this 

 issue? 



Ambassador COLSON. Mr. Chairman, I think, again, our job on 

 an issue like this is to coordinate and take on the international 

 side of the debate. We are not a technical agency in any sense. The 

 money has come to ONR but they have worked with and through 

 the established interagency process that NSF chairs to identify our 

 priorities. They have worked and our agencies have worked within 

 the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program that has been put 

 together, so all of this has tied together rather well, I think. It can 

 always be done a little bit better, but we certainly have no com- 

 plaints in that respect, 



Mr. Weldon. One of the questions I am going to ask our other 

 panelists, both after you leave and the other panel, is in regard to 

 the United States DOD-Russian DOD memorandum of understand- 

 ing on environmental protection that was signed in June 1995, the 

 Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission, which has the potential for re- 

 moving the bureaucratic barriers that arise. I guess I want to get 

 to the heart of the perception that perhaps there have been some 

 within the naval-nuclear-environmental community who have not 

 been maybe as forthcoming and as cooperative as maybe they 



