Budget & Policy

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) to be Secretary of Energy, media reported this week. Granholm, who is deeply familiar with U.S. auto-making, will be a key ambassador to industry when Biden enlists the DOE’s help bolstering his agenda to fight climate change, outlets reported, citing people familiar with the […]

The Department of Energy should designate someone as a sort of crisis-response czar in case of another national emergency such as COVID-19, according to an agency report on the pandemic published this week. DOE should revise existing crisis response plans to, among other things, “[p]rovide the Secretary with latitude to designate a director or ‘person […]

If, with a herculean effort, you put the COVID-19 pandemic to one side, the biggest story of 2020 at the National Nuclear Security Administration was how semi-autonomous it really is from the Department of Energy, and how much control the Department of Defense should have over it. The debate is in a sense older than […]

At deadline for RadWaste Monitor, Congress was still debating an extension of federal budgets beyond midnight on Friday, when a continuing resolution that extended 2020 budgets through today was set to expire.

At deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, Congress was still debating an extension of federal budgets beyond midnight on Friday, when a continuing resolution that extended 2020 budgets through today was set to expire.

At deadline for Weapons Complex Monitor, Congress was still debating an extension of federal budgets beyond midnight on Friday, when a continuing resolution that extended 2020 budgets through today was set to expire.

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) to be Secretary of Energy, media reported this week. Granholm, who is deeply familiar with U.S. auto-making, will be a key ambassador to industry when Biden enlists the DOE’s help bolstering his agenda to fight climate change, outlets reported, citing people familiar with the […]

The Department of Energy should designate someone as a sort of crisis-response czar in case of another national emergency such as COVID-19, according to an agency report on the pandemic published Wednesday. DOE should revise existing crisis response plans to, among other things, “[p]rovide the Secretary with latitude to designate a director or ‘person in […]

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) to be Secretary of Energy, media reported late Tuesday. Granholm, who is deeply familiar with U.S. auto-making, will be a key ambassador to industry when Biden enlists the DOE’s help bolstering his agenda to fight climate change, outlets reported, citing people familiar with the […]

House Armed Services chair Adam Smith (D-Wash.) again railed against the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to turn Savannah River into a plutonium pit factory, saying the “idiotic” and “dangerous,” plan might leave the U.S. without the means to modernize its nuclear weapons on time and on budget. “I am highly skeptical of the level […]

The story “Compromise NDAA Also a Compromise on DOE, Pentagon Control Over Civilian Nuke Budget” (Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor Vol. 24. No. 46) should have said that, under the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, if the Nuclear Weapons Council determines the secretary of energy’s proposed budget for the NNSA is inadequate, the White House […]

Even in a government where Democrats will control the White House and at least one chamber of Congress, political consensus appears to favor continuing the nuclear modernization program the Barack Obama administration started in 2016, the head of the House Armed Services Committee said Monday. “Any effort to change that is running into very strong […]

Among the 106 Republican members of the House of Representatives filing an amicus brief with a Texas lawsuit challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election — which President Donald Trump has claimed without evidence was compromised by widespread fraud — were five lawmakers whose districts include Department of Energy nuclear weapon sites. “This brief […]

The House and Senate both passed the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act with veto proof margins this week, sending the bill to President Trump’s desk where it remained at deadline Friday. The president had threatened to veto the measure, and its nuclear-weapons policies, for reasons unrelated to defense spending. Also this week, Congress approved a […]

Among the 106 Republican members of the House of Representatives filing an amicus brief with a Texas lawsuit challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election — which President Donald Trump has claimed without evidence was compromised by widespread fraud — were five lawmakers whose districts include Department of Energy nuclear weapon sites. “This brief […]

The Department of Energy and other federal agencies could operate under their 2021 budgets for at least another week beyond Friday, after the Senate passed a short-term continuing resolution by voice vote Friday afternoon. The Hill reported the vote to avert a government shutdown and keep agencies operating until Dec. 18. The House of Representatives approved […]

The story “Authorization Bill With Requested NNSA Budget, Partial Restoration for EM, Expected to Pass Congress This Week; Veto Threat Looms” (Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, Dec. 07, 2020) should have said that, under the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, if the Nuclear Weapons Council determines the secretary of energy’s proposed budget for the NNSA is […]

The House of Representatives approved the final version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act with a veto-proof margin Tuesday evening, sending the bill and its new nuclear waste and weapons policies to the Senate. The House passed the bill 300-135 , with every member voting. Among other things, the measure would require the Department […]

The Department of Energy and other federal agencies will operate under their 2021 budgets for at least another week beyond Friday , if a short-term continuing resolution slated for a House vote on Wednesday becomes law. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) announced the impending vote on Twitter Monday afternoon. The current stopgap bill, passed […]

Even in a government where Democrats will control the White House and at least one chamber of Congress, political consensus appears to favor continuing the nuclear modernization program the Barack Obama administration started in 2016, the head of the House Armed Services Committee said Monday. “Any effort to change that is running into very strong […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the ExchangeMonitor staff is tracking ahead of the winter holidays. December 08 – Center for Strategic and International Studies. A Conversation With Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), House Armed Services Chair. Virtual. 12:00 p.m. – 1:0 p.m. Eastern time. Registration is free. 09-10 – Center […]

A must-pass bill that would authorize even more than the requested funding for Department of Energy nuclear weapons and waste programs could get its first vote in the House today or Tuesday and clear the Senate later this week, a congressional aid said. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would authorize DOE’s National Nuclear Security […]

The personnel churn in the Donald Trump administration’s nuclear-weapons enterprise and Joe Biden’s election as President of the United States highlight the urgency of giving the administrator of the National nuclear Security Administration a fixed term, members of a National Academies panel said Wednesday. “At the moment we not only have secretary and deputy secretary […]

On Tuesday, another Democratic lawmaker called for President-elect Joe Biden to publish what would be the third U.S. nuclear posture review in as many administrations — a potential step toward altering the course of the nuclear modernization regimen that started in 2016. “They’ll have to do a top-to-bottom review of these programs and think about […]

A version of the fiery interagency and inter-branch tug of war that produced this year’s controversial civilian nuclear weapons budget would be essentially legalized, if a compromise 2021 defense authorization bill unveiled Thursday becomes law. The unified 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which lameduck President Donald Trump has threatened to veto over matters unrelated […]

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Committee approved its bi-partisan American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020 at a Wednesday business meeting. If passed, a tall order, with less than a month remaining in the 116th Congress, the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020 (ANIA) would by January 2022 require the Department of Energy […]

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Committee approved its bi-partisan American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020 at a Wednesday business meeting. If passed, a tall order, with less than a month remaining in the 116th Congress, the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020 (ANIA) would by January 2022 require the Department of Energy […]

The personnel churn in the Donald Trump administration’s nuclear-weapons enterprise and Joe Biden’s election as President of the United States highlight the urgency of giving the administrator of the National nuclear Security Administration a fixed term, members of a National Academies panel said Wednesday. “At the moment we not only have secretary and deputy secretary […]

On Tuesday, another Democratic lawmaker called for President-elect Joe Biden to publish what would be the third U.S. nuclear posture review in as many administrations — a potential step toward altering the course of the nuclear modernization regimen that started in 2016. “They’ll have to do a top-to-bottom review of these programs and think about […]

President-elect Joe Biden will announce his Secretary of Energy soon, according to his newly appointed chief of staff Ron Klain.  Likely contenders include people who served in the Department of Energy during the Obama administration, including former secretary Ernest Moniz, Arun Majumdar and Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall. Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee is another rumoredly potential pick. […]