A follow-up to an earlier post: After a round of stinging criticism over leaked draft budget documents for FY2006, the Bush administration has stepped back from cutting the budget of the Cooperative Threat Reduction program. In fact, now the administration says it is going to increase its funding.

The CTR program has been highly successful in securing dangerous nuclear material, helping Russia dismantle its Cold War nuclear infrastructure, and preventing the "brain drain" of former Soviet military nuclear scientists--all crucial nonproliferation efforts.

Kudos to the administration for this reevaluation. Could it be a sign of new self-reflection on the part of the Bush administration and an unbeknownst willingness to change course upon second reflection? Let's see what the final budget holds in February: will they also give up on their pursuit of new nuclear weapons R&D funding?