President Bush has the right idea with his calls late last week and over the weekend for a substantial crackdown on the proliferation of nuclear weapons technology and materials.

Many of his ideas are right on track, but ultimately they are undermined by two serious inconsistencies in U.S. policy.

The president says he wants to expand the Nunn-Lugar Act of 1991, which has successfully stopped the spread of nuclear weapons and nuclear materials in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Small, new and financially strapped countries found themselves in control of parts of the Soviet Union’s nuclear arsenal.

Nunn-Lugar put many of those countries’ weapons scientists to work and paid for weapons to be dismantled. By most accounts, it has been a successful piece of the nonproliferation puzzle. But in the president’s budget, he cuts funding for the program from more than $450 million to just over $400 million. If anything, this program should be more aggressively funded and its application spread to more countries.

Secondly, the president’s desire to build a new generation of low-yield nuclear weapons flies in the face of nonproliferation. These weapons, which the U.S. will spend about $3 billion to research, are designed to be used as bunker-buster bombs. By building new nukes that are more “usable,” we undermine our credibility on proliferation.

There’s plenty to like about the president’s plan. He calls for tighter controls on fissile materials and reprocessing equipment, better coordination of intelligence and law enforcement efforts, and tougher inspections as part of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Stopping the spread of nuclear weapons could become one of the lasting triumphs of the Bush administration, if it takes the task seriously.

The White House must use diplomatic pressure to bring Israel, Pakistan and India into the Nonproliferation Treaty and expand its support of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors signees.

And the president should abandon his plans for a new generation of nuclear weapons. The United States should not be spending $3 billion to develop new nuclear bombs. That money could be better spent expanding Nunn-Lugar and funding other nonproliferation activities.


Federal dialogue


Gov. Baldacci is considering an executive order that would prohibit state agencies from questioning a person’s immigration status. The order should be put on hold.

Pressure for the ban is coming from activists in Portland who are outraged at the heavy-handed tactics used by Border Patrol agents last month. Officers swept through ethnic restaurants, shelters, the airport and other public places looking for illegal immigrants; at least 10 people were arrested.

But hundreds of others, in the United States legally, were scared. The spectacle of the federal government rousting people from their lives and demanding to see their papers intimidated some families, making them afraid to leave their homes.

Opposition instantly formed, and Sen. Susan Collins has called on Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge to investigate the raid.

While well-meaning, the executive order is not the way to go. We do the state’s immigrant population no favors by building walls between Maine and the federal government.

Dialogue between state and federal officials can help prevent a repeat of the tactics on display in Portland, while also recognizing the legitimate security risks posed by some individuals who enter the country illegally.
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