God forbid, if a nuclear terrorist detonated just one cup full of highly enriched uranium in a major American city, it would kill more Americans in one instant than we have lost in every conflict since the Revolutionary War.

For every single person murdered by terrorists on September 11th, there would be 300 innocent men, women and children killed.

A nation that mourns the loss of every astronaut, every soldier and every innocent child would have to deal with death on a level almost unimaginable.

Too often, for understandable reasons, we Americans do not want to think about the unthinkable.

Such is the case with nuclear terrorism. Yet, ignoring the threat of nuclear terrorism will not make that threat disappear.

For 50 years, the reality of mutually assured destruction prevented nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The very existence of vast quantities of nuclear weapons served to prevent nuclear holocaust.

Now is the time for Americans to face a new reality. That reality is that the vast nuclear inventories that prevented nuclear annihilation during the Cold War now put American families at risk.

This measure recognizes that homeland security begins by preventing terrorists overseas from getting their hands on deadly weapons that could be used against our citizens. We need to do more to protect the world from nuclear terrorists…and we need to do it more quickly.

There is enough nuclear material in Russia today to build 41,000 nuclear bombs. Much of that material is still not as protected as it should be.

Does anyone doubt that the same terrorists who saw glory in crashing commercial airliners into the World Trade Towers would hesitate for a moment to detonate a nuclear bomb against American families?

The fact is that we know that terrorists and black market traders have tried to steal nuclear material from Russia.

Since 1992, no less than 14 cases of documented theft from Russia have occurred. In 8 of those cases, the material was not recovered until after it had been smuggled out of Russia.

Terrorists have the will to steal nuclear material and the will to use it against Americans. It is our profound responsibility in Congress to prevent them from having the means to do so.

No Member of Congress would deny the horrific consequences of nuclear terrorism, but I am here today, because I believe we have not done nearly enough to prevent the potential of nuclear attacks on our homeland.

Two years ago, former Senators Sam Nunn and Howard Baker, along with Lloyd Cutler, in a comprehensive report called this threat, I quote, “The most urgent unmet national security threat to the United States today…”

A year and a half ago, President Bush said, “Our highest priority is to keep terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction…”

Russian President Putin said nuclear proliferation…“is one of the foremost threats of contemporary times.”

While we have made some incremental progress since those statements were made, small steps are not enough when it comes to protecting American families against nuclear terrorism.

Two years after the Baker-Cutler-Nunn report, homeland defense against nuclear terrorism programs still comprise less than 1% of our national defense budget. And, a recent Harvard report says that “only 37% of the potentially vulnerable material in Russia was protected by initial security upgrades.”

The new reality of the threat of nuclear terrorism has been met with more rhetoric than action. This is a threat that will not be stopped by rhetoric. It will require a serious, comprehensive and sustained commitment of leadership and resources.

The Nuclear Security Initiative we introduce today is a bold, comprehensive effort to address the threat of nuclear terrorism. Congress should do no less and has a moral responsibility to our nation to try to do more.

This bill could, just as appropriately, be named the Homeland Defense Against Nuclear Terrorism bill or the American Security Initiative. This bill is about protecting the security of millions of American families.

Led by the tireless efforts of Congressman Curt Weldon, this is a bipartisan effort.

It is our goal not only to pass this legislation, but also to refocus the attention of the Congress, the public and the press onto an issue that has received far too little attention.

We have had more discussion on the House floor over the past two years on the renaming of Post Offices and Federal courthouses that we have had on how to best protect Americans from the ultimate nightmare of nuclear terrorism. That must change.

When Congress has decided to make a priority out of highway spending or NIH research, we have come together on a bipartisan basis to commit whatever time and resources were necessary to make major advances.

We need to meet this problem head-on, and fast. This legislation will establish a “global clean-out” effort to do just that. With a sense of urgency, Congress must make homeland defense against nuclear terrorism a top national priority. It would be wrong to do anything less.