Budget & Policy

The House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee will offer the first glimpse of Congress’ Fiscal Year 2013 priorities for the National Nuclear Security Administration and Department of Energy later this month as it will mark up its portion of the FY 2013 Defense Authorization Act at 1:30 p.m. April 26. The Emerging Threats and Capabilities […]

Earlier rumblings of possible lawsuits to stall construction of the Uranium Processing Facility have not materialized, but the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance—with the support of other activist groups and peace organizations—has stepped up efforts to sway public opinion and influence Congressional appropriators about the high-priced government project. On April 13, OREPA released a seven-page […]

GOP frustration with the Obama Administration’s recent decision to scale back its plans to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and arsenal boiled over yesterday as the top Republican on the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee blasted the National Nuclear Security Administration’s decision to defer construction of a major plutonium handling facility for five […]

House appropriators aren’t supporting the Department of Energy’s FY 2013 budget request for its Office of Environmental Management, instead proposing a small funding cut in their version of the FY 2013 Energy and Water Appropriations bill scheduled to be marked up in subcommittee today. Under the bill, the text of which was released yesterday, EM […]

The House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee will formally weigh in on the Obama Administration’s FY2013 request for the National Nuclear Security Administration today, matching the Administration’s $7.58 billion request for the agency’s weapons program but cutting $176 million from the request for nonproliferation work, according to a draft of the bill released yesterday. The […]

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) has been a frequent critic of the Administration and its decision to scale back its nuclear modernization plans in the face of budgetary pressure, but in a speech yesterday, Kyl placed part of the blame on a different party: Congress. Speaking at the Capitol Hill Club, Kyl suggested that the actions by appropriators […]

The House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee cleared its version of the Fiscal Year 2013 Energy and Water Appropriations Act yesterday, but details of the legislation continue to be hard to come by. The panel has released top-line numbers for the bill, but has revealed scant information about funding levels for specific programs and projects […]

Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who helped secure promises from the Obama Administration to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex in arsenal in exchange for his support of the New START Treaty, is urging Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) to hold a hearing to assess whether the Administration is still living […]

Three Senate Republicans took to Politico yesterday to urge the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee to boost funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program. In an April 22 commentary, Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) suggested that the appropriations panel—which marks up the Fiscal Year 2013 Energy […]

Three days, four markups. It’s going to be a busy week on Capitol Hill, but when it’s over, the budget picture for the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy will be a lot more clear. Here’s a look at the key events this week:  Gary Samore, the White House Coordinator for Arms […]

House appropriators are set to cut $152.8 million from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plutonium disposition account over concerns about massive increases to the cost and schedule baseline looming on the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, NW&M Monitor has learned. The House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee marked up the bill last week, but only […]

The Senate Armed Services Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee has cancelled a hearing that had been scheduled for this afternoon, which was to include testimony from National Nuclear Security Administration nonproliferation chief Anne Harrington and several Pentagon officials. The subcommittee did not provide a reason for the cancellation, but said in a release the hearing […]

Senate appropriators are set to strengthen oversight of major National Nuclear Security Administration projects with language in the Fiscal Year 2013 Energy and Water Appropriations Act that would require the agency to provide twice yearly updates to Congress on its most expensive endeavors. The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee cleared its version of the […]

The Department of Energy would be able to move ahead on establishing interim nuclear waste storage sites under language in legislation that cleared the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee yesterday. Current law prohibits DOE from supporting interim storage until the Yucca Mountain repository is established. But Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the panel’s chair, said […]

Senate appropriators are looking to spend slightly more than the Department of Energy requested for Fiscal Year 2013 for cleanup activities, reporting out of subcommittee yesterday an FY 2013 Energy and Water Appropriations bill that would provide a total of approximately $5.7 billion for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. The proposed funding level represents an […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration won’t get the $150 million it requested for research, development and demonstration funding for USEC’s American Centrifuge Project from Senate appropriators, but it will finally receive transfer authority DOE long sought for the project. Though the full version of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee’s version of the FY2013 […]

In an effort to increase the National Nuclear Security Administration’s autonomy from the Department of Energy, the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee is set to approve sweeping changes to the agency that would distance itself from its parent organization. The subcommittee will mark up its portion of the Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Authorization Act […]

House lawmakers are proposing a number of significant changes to the workings of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in the Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Authorization Act. The proposed changes, outlined in documents released yesterday by the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, appear to come in response to concerns over the potential cost impacts […]

House appropriators added a provision requiring the Department of Energy to report on the impacts of its uranium transfers on the mining industry to the Fiscal Year 2013 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill that cleared the House Appropriations Committee yesterday. The changes came in a manager’s amendment offered by House Energy and Water Appropriations Chairman […]

Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) is looking to strike $100 million in House funding for a Department of Energy program supporting USEC’s American Centrifuge Project when the matter comes to the House floor. Last week, the House Appropriations Committee reported out the Fiscal Year 2013 Energy and Water spending bill, which provided the funding for a […]

The White House late last week nominated Captain Sean Sullivan to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. If confirmed by the Senate, Sullivan would fill the vacancy created when Larry Brown left the Board last year. Sullivan currently serves as a project manager and analyst for Sonalysts, which provides analysis of submarine sonar […]

The House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee’s proposal to increase the authority of the National Nuclear Security Administration while revamping how the agency conducts oversight of its contractors is meeting opposition from the Project on Government Oversight, which suggested last week that the panel’s plan would “seriously undermine” the “health, safety, and financial accountability” of […]

After being vacant in a full-time capacity for almost a year, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) is calling on the Obama Administration to officially nominate a new Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management. In an April 30 letter to the White House, Hastings criticized the lack of progress on a nomination as “unacceptable,” adding, “To date, […]

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), who as the chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee authored the National Nuclear Security Administration reform language that will be considered by the full committee this week, took to the op-ed page of the Albuquerque Journal yesterday to defend the legislation. Turner suggested that management problems at the […]

Did you miss Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor senior reporter Todd Jacobson on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal  yesterday? Check out the 45-minute segment here as he discusses the National Nuclear Security Administration’s FY 2013 budget request and takes questions from an eclectic group of callers on U.S. nuclear weapons policy.

House appropriators have generally gone along with many of the Obama Administration’s decisions to trim spending from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget request, but lawmakers on both sides of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee suggested yesterday that the Administration had gone too far in slowing down the agency’s Second […]

Shari Davenport, a political appointee who is serving as head of the Department of Energy cleanup program’s Office of Communications and External Affairs, is leaving EM to serve as Chief Operating Officer for DOE’s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs. The move, which will shift Davenport from the political ranks to a federal employee, is […]

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, will formally introduce a bill today to tie progress on modernizing the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and arsenal to current and future reductions to the nation’s nuclear stockpile. Turner’s “Maintaining the President’s Commitment to our Nuclear Deterrent and National Security Act […]

National Nuclear Security Administration and DOE-Environmental Management officials will appear before the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee next week as Congressional budget hearing season continues to heat up. NNSA Administrator Tom D’Agostino, Defense Programs chief Don Cook, Naval Reactors chief Adm. Kirkland Donald, and David Huizenga, the Senior Advisor for Environmental Management, will testify […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Gregory Jaczko sought to assure lawmakers yesterday that, despite recent public disagreements between Commissioners, the work environment of his agency has improved since his professional behavior was called into question before Congress in December. “The only thing the NRC has going for it is credibility. Under your leadership that credibility has been […]