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The prospect that Al Qaeda or some other terrorist group might get its hand on a nuclear bomb is widely viewed as the scariest national-security threat facing the country. But more than a year after Congress passed a law creating a White House "czar" to focus on the issue, the post has yet to be filled—the apparent victim of yet another clash over presidential powers.

The provision creating a new special White House office to coordinate nuclear proliferation and counterterrorism efforts was tucked away in a landmark bill passed by Congress last year implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 commission. (At the same time, Congress created a commission to study the problem.)

"With this bill, we'll be keeping our promises to the families of 9/11 … and we'll be making the American people safer," proclaimed Speaker Nancy Pelosi on July 27, 2007, as the massive bill was passed. President Bush signed the measure into law a few days later, hailing the act as another example of his administration's commitment to fighting terrorism.

But since then, barely a word has been heard about the "United States Coordinator for the Prevention of  Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism," as the position is officially called in the 9/11 law. Nobody has been nominated by President Bush to fill the position. And the office that coordinator is supposed to run doesn't exist.

"I call the White House every other week about this," said Carie Lemack, cofounder of the Families of 9/11, a group that still lobbies to make sure the government fulfills its 9/11 commitments. "They call back and tell me, they're working on it."

To be sure, there are a number of government offices dealing with the nuclear proliferation issue. Officials at the National Security Council, the CIA, the Office of the Directorof National Intelligence and the Departments of Energy, Defense and State, among others, all work on various aspects of the problem. But the thinking, in creating the new position, which some White House officials thought made sense was that the government needed one top official to cut through interagency disputes and make sure everybody was working together on how best to keep nukes and other weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists.

"I did see a value in having somebody who wakes up every morning and goes to bed every night worried about the issue," said Frances Fragos Townsend, who until January served as President Bush's chief homeland-security adviser.

So what's the problem?