Budget & Policy

The Obama Administration has extended for another year, to July 11, 2014, a policy to have agencies accelerate payments to prime contractors so they can more quickly pay small business subcontractors. While federal agencies typically have 30 days to pay prime contractors, the policy directs the Department of Energy and other agencies to accelerate such […]

New Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz is considering a set of reorganization proposals that would reverse many of the changes made to the Department in recent years, WC Monitor has learned. Among the changes under consideration is the creation of a new Under Secretary of Energy for Management position, to which the offices of Environmental […]

The Obama Administration is set to begin filling in the coming weeks several high level vacancies in the Department of Energy with the nomination of two key posts: the new Under Secretary for Management and Performance and the Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The Administration is believed to be set to pick retired […]

New Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz outlined his plans to reorganize the Department of Energy yesterday, suggesting that a newly created Under Secretary for Management and Performance would help the Department better achieve its mission. The new under secretary position would have responsibility for the Office of Environmental Management as well as oversight of major projects […]

Following mounting concerns from Nevada officials about proposed shipments of uranium-233 to the Nevada National Security Site, Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is planning to speak with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) on the topic. Sandoval sent a letter to Moniz last month opposing the shipment of material from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to […]

One of the top Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday offered a dim view of the prospects for the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty and urged the Obama Administration to wait until after the current 113th Congress to submit the treaty to the Senate. “I think it would be better not to take up the […]

Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), a longtime supporter of the Department of Energy’s cleanup efforts, yesterday praised DOE’s recently announced plans to move the Office of Environmental Management to report to a new Under Secretary for Management and Performance. Hastings had been a strong opponent of DOE’s last reorganization effort, carried out two years ago, that […]

Petitioners filed their final brief yesterday in a case that aims to stop payments from utilities into the Nuclear Waste Fund for commercial spent fuel disposal. While the Obama Administration shuttered the Yucca Mountain project in 2010, DOE has still argued that it is necessary to continue collecting the fees, most recently in a court-mandated […]

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing this week on management at the Department of Energy. The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing comes about a week after new Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz announced a reorganization plan that includes the creation of a new Under Secretary of Energy for Management […]

National Nuclear Security Administration and Department of Energy officials will be spending plenty of time on Capitol Hill this week with several hearings and speeches on tap: On Tuesday, Los Alamos Director Charlie McMillan, Sandia Director Paul Hommert and Livermore Director Parney Albright will testify before the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee along with […]

Former California lawmaker Ellen Tauscher, who helped create the National Nuclear Security Administration during her time in Congress and will serve on a 12-member NNSA governance study panel, said yesterday that she favored making changes to the agency within its current status as a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy. However, she said she […]

Members of the New Mexico Congressional delegation urged their colleagues yesterday to move quickly approve the Department of Energy’s recently submitted request to shift funds among its cleanup projects. Among the sites targeted by DOE’s reprogramming request is Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the Department is seeking to increase cleanup funds by $19 million and […]

The refurbishment of the B61 bomb, which according to some estimates could cost as much as $10 billion, could be in for further cost increases and schedule delays due to current budget constraints, the head of Sandia National Laboratories said yesterday at a Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee. Sandia Director Paul Hommert said the […]

Sequestration cuts to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons account won’t impact the W76 refurbishment program and will have a “minimal” impact on the B61 refurbishment program, NNSA weapons chief Don Cook said yesterday in a speech at the Capitol Hill Club. The across-the-board funding cuts slashed approximately $600 million from the NNSA’s weapons account […]

The House Armed Services Committee has signed off on the Department of Energy’s recently submitted reprogramming request to shift funds among cleanup projects and sites. The news was announced yesterday by Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) during a House Cleanup Caucus briefing on DOE’s Office of River Protection. The House panel is one of four Congressional […]

Former Department of Defense official Steven Ho will head up the National Nuclear Security Administration’s new Office of Program Review and Analysis, which is designed to strengthen the NNSA’s budgeting and planning processes. The just-created office was established as a result of recent collaboration between the NNSA and DoD’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation group, […]

Problems on major construction projects at the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration are likely to continue until the agency strengthens its cost estimating practices, Government Accountability Office Natural Resources and Environment Director David Trimble told a Senate panel yesterday. Citing major cost and schedule delays on projects like the Uranium Processing […]

Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman, who is currently the acting Energy Secretary while Obama Administration nominee Ernest Moniz awaits confirmation by the Senate, will appear before the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee next week. Poneman will address DOE’s broad budgetary portfolio at 2:30 p.m. May 15 in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The subcommittee […]

Here are some of the events that we’ll be keeping track of this week: Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) will offer his thoughts on nuclear deterrence, arms control and the nuclear triad at 8 a.m. Tuesday at the Reserve Officers Association at One Constitution Avenue in Northeast Washington, D.C. Former Defense Department official and current Center […]

Lawmakers on the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee have approved a reprogramming request for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. The measure was approved last week by the House and Senate Armed Services committees, leaving the House Energy and Water Appropriations panel as the lone hurdle in gaining full approval. The reprogramming […]

Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) earlier this week urged House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers to consider the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management reprogramming request, as well as a planned upcoming request to move $21 million in funding from the National Nuclear Security Administration to the Office of Environmental Management for cleanup of Los […]

The time to act on national used fuel legislation is now, stakeholders at the Nuclear Energy Assembly meeting in Washington, D.C. yesterday said, but whether or not this notoriously divided Congress can gather the bipartisan support to move has yet to be seen. Though he was not one of the four bipartisan senators who introduced […]

House appropriators yesterday signed off on a reprogramming request for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, lifting the final roadblock to full Congressional approval of the eagerly awaited request. DOE submitted the request early this month in order to address what it called “misaligned funds” in its programs as a result of the […]

Though he agreed that the spent nuclear fuel disposal issue “must be resolved for nuclear energy to grow,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) outlined House Republicans’ case for restarting the Yuca Mountain review, and against proceeding with interim storage as the Senate has proposed, at the Nuclear Energy Assembly meeting in Washington, D.C. yesterday. “I recognize […]

Former National Nuclear Security Administration nonproliferation chief William Tobey blasted cuts to the agency’s nonproliferation program, arguing in a May 14 Politico op-ed that the Obama Administration should place a higher priority on the threat reduction work. The Administration cut about $400 million from the NNSA’s nonproliferation program in its Fiscal Year 2014 request, including […]

House lawmakers unveiled the allocations for each appropriations subcommittee late last week, and funding is going to be tight in the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. The panel funds the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, but the $30.4 billion allocation for the subcommittee—known as the 302(b) allocation—is […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration and the Office of Environmental Management will get their first glimpse of how Congressional lawmakers will go about funding their organizations as the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee will mark up its portion of the National Defense Authorization Act at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday in Room 2212 of the Rayburn […]

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight is gearing up to hold a hearing on the Department of Energy’s major cleanup contracts next month. In preparation for the June 20 hearing, the panel has sent letters seeking a variety of information to DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and a […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration unnecessarily reimbursed about $3.7 million to the contractor for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility for “inappropriate temporary living expenses,” the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General concluded in a report released yesterday. The IG found that the Shaw AREVA MOX Services paid $2.3 million in temporary living expenses […]

While the Department of Defense is planning to address the impacts of sequestration with up to 11 furlough days for its civilian workforce, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s federal employees appear to be getting off easier. NNSA spokesman Josh McConaha said the agency is not planning any furloughs, having avoided a major impact to its […]