Washington, DC - The United States and Russia today signed an agreement to remove highly enriched uranium from vulnerable sites around the world in an effort to keep these materials out of the hands of terrorists. Last week, the Senate approved an amendment sponsored by Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that addressed this issue. The amendment would: 

.  Urge the President to establish a task force in the Department of Energy on nuclear materials removal;

.  Provide a specific mandate for a program to remove the nuclear material from vulnerable sites around the world as quickly as possible, whether the nuclear material was supplied by the U.S. or the Soviet Union;

.  Authorized funding to begin these efforts; and

.  Provide specific direction to make flexible approaches tailored to each site to get them to give up their nuclear material. 

The following is a statement from Senator Feinstein on today's agreement with Russia:

"The spread of nuclear material is one of the greatest threats to the United States and the world. This agreement, to begin the global cleanout of vulnerable nuclear materials, marks an important step forward. We must do everything in our power to prevent terrorists from ever getting their hands on nuclear material and developing nuclear weapons.

It is critical that the United States ensure that the work agreed to is completed in a timely and expeditious manner. That is why I will work closely with Senator Domenici during the appropriations process to provide the Administration with the resources it needs to clean up the material at the earliest possible time.

Additionally, I will work to ensure that the amendment approved by the Senate last week is part of the final Defense Authorization bill. This legislation is needed to create a single, integrated U.S. government program to facilitate the removal of these dangerous materials."