Budget & Policy

Sixty-two lawmakers have signed on to a letter drafted by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) that calls on the Joint Select Committee on Debt Reduction to cut liberally from the nation’s nuclear weapons budget as it looks for areas in the federal budget to slash. Markey will join retired Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, chairman of the […]

The House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee will hold a hearing at 11:30 a.m. Friday on the impact nuclear modernization programs in Russia and China could have on the United States. Former Pentagon official Mark Schneider, a senior analyst with the National Institute for Public Policy; Dean Cheng, a Research Fellow in the Asian Studies […]

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As the Department of Energy prepares its Fiscal Year 2013 budget request, DOE appears to have centered on a funding level far lower than the $970 million it planned to request as part of a modified funding profile for the WTP established last year. Though talks with the White House Office of Management and Budget […]

The chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee fired back at a plan to reduce government spending unveiled by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) yesterday, calling a plan that would slash funding to maintain and modernize the nation’s nuclear deterrent by $200 billion over 10 years “irrational.” With the support of 63 other House […]

Retired Brig. Gen. Jonathan George, who served as the top active duty military officer in the NNSA from May 2008 to March of 2009 and later served on President Obama’s National Security Council, is running for Congress. George retired from the Air Force in August and is seeking Indiana’s 9th District seat held by freshman […]

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) and eight other Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee are urging their counterparts in the Senate to “stand by” a commitment to fund the modernization of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex as lawmakers continue to face significant pressure to cut from portions of the plan. In the letter, Turner, the […]

Also of note during the first day of the Decisionmakers’ Forum yesterday:   Acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Dave Huizenga emphasized his desire to push authority out to DOE field offices. “To be a productive team, we have to understand what our job is. That’s part of my job in the next few […]

In what was described as a “pre-conference meeting,” leaders from the House and Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittees met earlier this week to lay the groundwork for negotiations on the Fiscal Year 2012 spending bill. The meeting included Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), the chairman of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, and Ranking […]

Staffers at the Government Accountability Office are bracing for budget cuts and potential field office closures that will be announced next week. Faced with several years of flat and declining budgets, senior officials at the government watchdog agency are putting the final touches on a plan that could cut up to 500 jobs and close […]

New Defense Secretary Leon Panetta weighed in on the debate over modernization funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration yesterday, telling a House panel that the nation needs to maintain funding for work on the nation’s nuclear deterrent. House and Senate appropriators have both cut liberally from the Obama Administration’s $7.6 billion request for the […]

As Congress works to complete a final funding bill for Fiscal Year 2012, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is hoping to again make the case for increased funding for several cleanup efforts that have so far rejected by lawmakers. Among the funding increases sought by EM that have been met with little […]

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At a debate in Las Vegas Tuesday, several Republican presidential candidates voiced support for the Obama Administration’s efforts to shut down development of the Yucca Mountain repository. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said he opposes developing a nuclear waste repository without support from the state. “The idea that 49 states can tell Nevada we want […]

Here’s a look at some key events going on this week:  The National Nuclear Security Administration celebrates the expected completion of the B53 dismantlement Tuesday with an event at the Pantex Plant. U.S. and Russian arms control will be the subject of several D.C.-based events this week: former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright headlines a […]

In an effort to get a cost-share R&D program for USEC’s American Centrifuge Plant off the ground as soon as possible, the Department of Energy plans to request permission from Congress to transfer $150 million to the project in FY 2012. “To pay for the federal portion of the project, DOE intends to submit a […]

Computer hackers continue to target the Department of Energy complex, and DOE’s Inspector General has concluded that the Department isn’t doing everything it can to protect its various networks and computer systems. In a report released yesterday, the IG noted that it found some improvements during its annual review of the computer security practices across […]

Repeating criticism of Senate cuts to nuclear weapons modernization efforts in the Fiscal Year 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner (R-Ohio) shot back at Senate aides who have brushed off his accusations that other projects were funded at the expense of modernization. Yesterday, Turner repeated his […]

The Pentagon’s willingness to transfer additional budget authority to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program depends largely on the appetite in Congress for the agency’s modernization program, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Miller told NW&M Monitor. The Pentagon transferred $5.7 billion of its budget authority for Fiscal Years 2011-2015—and another […]

With just a few weeks remaining before the Joint Select Committee on Debt Reduction is expected to complete its work, the New York Times weighed in on the nation’s nuclear budget with a scathing take on the Obama Administration’s nuclear modernization plans. In an editorial published yesterday, the Times mirrors positions taken recently by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) […]

Here’s a look at key events going on this week:  ETEBA is holding its annual Business Opportunities Conference in Knoxville this week from Tuesday to Thursday. On the bill Wednesday are several speakers from the Department of Energy, including Tracy Mustin, principal deputy assistant secretary for EM, Mike Howard, director of EM’s Office of Procurement […]

Action on the long-stalled Fiscal Year 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Act is expected to ramp within the next week as Democratic leaders in the Senate are preparing to combine the bill with two others as part of a second “minibus” appropriations package. The legislation would be combined with the Financial Services and State Department-Foreign […]

Four senior Obama Administration officials are slated to appear before the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee Wednesday as the panel examines the ongoing Pentagon nuclear deterrence review, the impact of budget cuts to the Administration’s nuclear modernization plan and plans for future nuclear reductions. Jim Miller, the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for […]

The Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration need to improve how they use contractors’ past performance information when awarding new contracts, according to a DOE Inspector General’s report released yesterday. An audit conducted by the IG found that the Department could not demonstrate it had considered past performance information in 20 percent […]

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With the $88 billion plan to modernize the nation’s weapons complex and nuclear arsenal on the Congressional chopping block, senior Administration officials yesterday sought to create separation between the New START Treaty from the modernization plan that was generated during debate on the treaty, suggesting during a House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing that […]

Tight budgets were a constant theme during yesterday’s House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing, especially with the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction considering massive cuts across the federal government. But Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) chastised the Administration, and the officials at yesterday’s hearing, for not being more upfront about the potential impact of […]

The Department of Energy Inspector General’s Office is reviewing how DOE’s two largest cleanup sites—Hanford and the Savannah River Site—conducted layoffs of workers hired with Recovery Act funds. DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman disclosed the review in testimony yesterday at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending. “The […]

Acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Dave Huizenga emphasized in a an interview last week that DOE’s cleanup program won’t play second fiddle to the U.S. nuclear weapons program despite a recent DOE reorganization. In July, DOE announced that EM would report to Under Secretary for Nuclear Security Tom D’Agostino, who also heads the National […]

The Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, already one of the Department of Energy’s most expensive projects, is at risk of another cost increase of almost half-a-billion dollars, according to a report DOE released late this week.