§2931 Office of the United States Coordinator for the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism

Summary

Creates an office in the White House called the Office of the United States Coordinator for the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. The office is led by a United States Coordinator and a Deputy Coordinator. Both are chosen by the President and must be confirmed by the Senate. They work full time, the Deputy helps and fills in when the Coordinator is absent, and neither can hold another federal job while serving. Putting the office in the Executive Office of the President does not limit Congress’s right to get its information or to talk with the office’s staff. The Coordinator must advise the President on preventing the spread and use of WMDs and make a full U.S. strategy with clear goals, ways to fix gaps and overlap, and plans to protect past nuclear security work in Russia and other countries. The Coordinator must prioritize and speed up useful programs, find and fix vulnerable sites and materials, create new programs (including attracting top scientists and strengthening national labs), and coordinate work across agencies like Energy, Defense, State, and Homeland Security and with international efforts (including the Proliferation Security Initiative, the G–8 Global Partnership, UN Security Council Resolution 1540, and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism). The Coordinator leads interagency work, checks how programs are working, and oversees a coordinated budget for these efforts. The Coordinator can hire staff, reassign federal employees with agency agreement, use other agencies’ services for pay, hire outside experts under 5 U.S.C. 3109 at pay no higher than the daily rate for Level IV of the Executive Schedule (5 U.S.C. 5315), and use the mail. The office must work with the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism and, starting with fiscal year 2009 and every year after, send Congress a report with the strategy and any suggested law changes when the federal budget is sent.