Chairman's Press
Lugar’s New Child Nutrition Law
U.S. Senator Dick Lugar released the following statement after the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids of Act of 2010 was signed into law: On December 13, an important piece of national legislation which extends and improves programs associated with the health, wellbeing, and education of Indiana children was signed into law. As a co-sponsor of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, it passed earlier this year without a single dissenting vote in the United States Senate. Our nation has maintained sc… Continue Reading
December 08, 2010
Senators Menendez, Lugar Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Create Independent Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission
WASHINGTON - Today U.S. Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Dick Lugar (R-IN), members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced the Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission Act of 2010. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) also co-sponsored the legislation. The bipartisan bill would mandate the creation of an independent commission to evaluate U.S. policies and programs aimed at reducing illicit drug supply and demand and recommend a multiyear counternarcotics strategy to address the escal… Continue Reading
December 07, 2010
Lugar Urges International Development Banks to Step Up Corruption Cases
U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar announced today that criminal prosecution of firms and individuals caught defrauding the World Bank and the other multilateral development banks is an important deterrent, but use of this tool varies widely among the banks. Lugar, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has led a long-term oversight project of the banks' anti-corruption efforts. He recently asked the presidents of all the banks to describe their policies and practices regarding crimina… Continue Reading
December 06, 2010
Lugar Praises Work of Nunn-Lugar Staff
The United States will use all of its military, diplomatic and economic power - without question - to ensure that life threatening weapons of mass destruction everywhere are accounted, contained and hopefully destroyed. - The Lugar Doctrine, December 6, 2001 Nine years after Senator Dick Lugar first articulated an American foreign policy and national security doctrine to counter the spread of weapons of mass destruction, he praised the work of hundreds of Department of Defense workers who carry… Continue Reading
December 03, 2010
Lugar Encouraged by Developments in U.S.-Korea Trade Agreement
U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar announced he is encouraged by today's reports of the revised U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. "I am encouraged by the latest developments on the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement and look forward to reviewing this agreement and its potential to increase markets for Hoosier and U.S. made goods, services and agricultural products," said Lugar, the Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "Overseas markets are a key to economic recovery. Implementation of this … Continue Reading
December 02, 2010
Lugar Named Top 100 Global Thinker
U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar was named to Foreign Policy's list of the Top 100 Global Thinkers in the new 40th anniversary issue of the respected magazine. Lugar, the Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with Committee Chairman John Kerry, were paired at 34th on the list "for being the adults of Capitol Hill" regarding their work on international affairs and American national security. No other Members of Congress made the list. Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers also … Continue Reading
December 01, 2010
Lab Directors Assure Lugar on Nuclear Modernization
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Dick Lugar released the following statement and letters regarding the New START Treaty: Last July, the Directors of the three main National Laboratories responsible for our nuclear stockpile testified before the Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees on the 1251 report. Earlier this week, I wrote to the Laboratory Directors to obtain their views on the updated 1251 plan submitted in November. Senator Kerry joined me in my request… Continue Reading
November 24, 2010
Lugar Encourages Haitians to Vote Expresses Concern on Lack of Progress in Reconstruction
Senator Richard G. Lugar, the Ranking Member on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced today that he dispatched Foreign Relations Committee senior professional staff members to Haiti as part of a Congressional delegation to monitor elections scheduled for November 28, 2010. Lugar also released the following statement: "I encourage the people of Haiti to vote and participate in selecting their leaders - in what I hope will be free and transparent elections on November 28. "The … Continue Reading
November 22, 2010
Lugar Statement on North Korea
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Dick Lugar made the following statement regarding North Korea today. North Korea's revelations regarding continued development of its nuclear program come as no surprise. Ongoing work is underway to expand its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capabilities on the chemical and biological fronts as well. With a trading network operating in scores of countries, and a supporting cast in Burma, Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, and individuals in other… Continue Reading
November 19, 2010
Senators Kerry and Lugar Call For Free And Transparent Parliamentary Elections In Moldova
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ahead of the November 28 parliamentary elections in Moldova, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) and Ranking Member Dick Lugar (R-IN) issued the following statements announcing the Senate's passage of a resolution recognizing Moldova's democratic accomplishments and expressing its support for free and transparent elections: "The people and the government of Moldova have overcome a daunting set of economic and political challenges. The success of thes… Continue Reading
November 16, 2010
Lugar Applauds the Secure Storage of Spent Plutonium Fuel in Kazakhstan
U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar welcomed today's announcement that the United States and Kazakhstan have completed a major nonproliferation program to provide secure storage for the spent fuel from Kazakhstan's BN-350 plutonium production reactor. In a large-scale effort over the last year, the spent fuel (enough material to fabricate 775 nuclear weapons) was transported in a series of 12 secure shipments over 1,800 miles, from Aktau near the Caspian Sea to a secure location in eastern Kazakhstan. In ad… Continue Reading
November 12, 2010
Lugar visits Kenyan bio labs
NAIROBI, Kenya - As part of U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar's (R-IN) Africa mission, he visited biological research laboratories in Kenya's capital city today. Lugar led a Department of Defense delegation to inspect three labs used to diagnose and research dangerous viruses and bacteria, such as Ebola, Anthrax, Rift Valley Fever, and Brucellosis (information about diseases below). With disease prevalent in the natural environment, the facilities inspected by Lugar were scientifically inadequate to meet th… Continue Reading
November 11, 2010
Lugar oversees weapons destruction in Burundi
BUJUMBURA, Burundi - As part of U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar's (R-IN) Africa mission, he visited several conventional weapons destruction facilities near Burundi's capital city today. Having emerged from a 12-year civil war in 2005, Burundi is similar to many African nations in having larges caches of small arms and light weapons (SALW), such as rocket propelled grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, 82mm mortars, and other dangerous weaponry. Most such weapons and accompanying stockpiles of ammunition and ex… Continue Reading
November 09, 2010
New International Award Named for Nunn-Lugar Program
U.S. Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) has awarded the first annual Nunn-Lugar International Global Science and Security Engagement Award to veteran European diplomat Javier Solana. A consortium of international research institutes announced the creation of the annual award in honor of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program November 8 in Madrid, Spain, at the first Conference on Science and International Security. At the awards ceremony, Senator Lugar received the International Science… Continue Reading
November 08, 2010
NUNN-LUGAR GOES GLOBAL
In a major policy speech today in Madrid, Spain, United States Senator Richard G. Lugar (R-IN), the former Chairman and now Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, detailed how the most successful arms control initiative in history is expanding globally to confront risks posed by biological weapons. "The global spread of advanced technologies, the rise of asymmetric warfare, and the growing interdependence of societies and economies have made discerning the intentions of poten… Continue Reading
November 04, 2010
SENATOR LUGAR AND EX-IM BANK SPONSOR EXPORT SEMINAR IN FT. WAYNE ON NOVEMBER 15
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Indiana businesses can learn how to tap into growing export markets at the Northeast Indiana International Trade Seminar in Fort Wayne on November 15, Senator Richard Lugar announced today. All interested Hoosier businesses and individuals are invited to attend this free seminar, to be held Monday, November 15 from 1pm to 4pm at the Allen County Public Library at 900 Library Plaza, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Free underground parking is available for all library card holders. "I'm… Continue Reading
November 04, 2010
Lugar Takes Nunn-Lugar Arms Control to Africa
U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN) leads a mission to Africa next week with a team of Pentagon arms control experts to help secure deadly biological diseases, in addition to destroying other lethal armaments. "Deadly diseases like Ebola, Marburg, and Anthrax are prevalent in Africa," said Lugar, the Ranking Member and former Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "These pathogens can be made into horrible weapons aimed at our troops, our friends and allies, and even the American public. T… Continue Reading
October 22, 2010
Nunn-Lugar Update
U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar announced the following progress in the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program since August. 48 Strategic nuclear warheads deactivated, 4 Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) destroyed, 16 submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) destroyed, 3 nuclear weapons transport train shipments secured and 68.88 metric tons of chemical weapons agent neutralized. In November 1991, Lugar (R-IN) and Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA) authored the Nunn-Lugar Act, which … Continue Reading
October 22, 2010
Lugar releases CRS Report on North Korea Sanctions Implementation
U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member, released today a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on implementation of sanctions for North Korea. Following renewed interest in sanctions against North Korea in the wake of the sinking of South Korea's Cheonan ship, which killed 46 individuals, Lugar asked the CRS to evaluate the implementation of the U.N. sanctions already in place. In response to the report, Lugar stated: "The CRS report on implementa… Continue Reading
September 30, 2010
Lugar Statement on Defense Trade Cooperation Treaties
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Dick Lugar released the following statement regarding the passage of Defense Trade Cooperation Treaties last evening. I am pleased that last night the Senate unanimously agreed to resolutions of advice and consent to ratification for defense trade cooperation treaties with the United Kingdom and Australia. Earlier this week, legislation I authored to provide necessary authorities to implement the treaties passed both the Senate and the Hou… Continue Reading
