mr. fortenberry: mr. chairman i rise to engage in a col "with my colleagues to ensure our defense department has the resources necessary to carry out an important mandate that this body passed earlier this year. the lord's resistance army has terrorized central africa. but congress and the administration took unprecedented steps to end the group's campaign of violence. this body passed bipartisan legislation called the lord's resistance army disarmament and northern uganda recovery act, requiring the administration to prepare and present to congress a come puerto ricans i have strategy to bring l.r.a. commanders to justice. with the administration's strategy released in november, we should move to help end the atrocities committed by the l.r.a. and protect innocent civilians and stabilize a region of africa that is critical to the united states' interests. through over 20 years of civil war, this brutal insurgency has created a humanitarian crisis that has resulted in the abduction of over 20,000 children

mr. fortenberry: i have an amendment at the desk. the clerk: amendment offered by mr. fortenberry of nebraska, page 32, line 4, after the dollar amount, reduce by $35 million. after the dollar amount, insert increase by $35 million. mr. fortenberry: this amendment would reduce the department of energy administration account by $35 million and increase the global threat reduction initiative by $35 million. as co-founder as the caucus together with my colleague, mr. schiff, i'm concerned about the potential nuclear security threat and vulnerabilities and would like to secure fissile materials and prevent nuclear materials here and around the world. i want to thank representative sanchez for her commitment to this important issue as well. nuclear threats is so serious and we shrink from even contemplating it. but ignoring the problem is not an option. there is relatively straightforward steps we can to reduce our vulnerabilities. to date, this important program has converted or verified the shutdown of 76 out of 200 highly enriched uranium reactors to be shut down by the y