CMRR-NF TO GET BOOST FROM HOUSE ARMED SERVICES GOP IN TODAY’S MARKUP

By ExchangeMonitor

Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee are expected to make a strong statement about the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility at today’s markup of the Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Authorization Act, authorizing funding for the project the Obama Administration wants to defer and including language that would prevent money from being spent on a plutonium strategy that doesn’t include the multi-billion-dollar project. Markup documents released this week reveal that the committee plans to authorize $100 million in FY2013 spending for the project, which coupled with $160 million in unspent money would come close to matching year-old FY2013 spending estimates for the project. Led by Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, Republicans could also offer an amendment to shift construction of the project to the Department of Defense.

Democrats on the committee are expected to offer resistance to NNSA reform language in the markup that would strip the Department of Energy’s Office of Health, Safety and Security of oversight responsibility of the nuclear weapons complex and push the NNSA to adopt Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, increase the autonomy of the NNSA and reduce headquarters personnel by more than 50 percent. Their concerns mirror issues raised by union officials over the last week that the reform provisions would weaken health, safety and security and endanger workers, but Republicans on the committee are not expected to back down from their efforts to reform the agency. Turner, however, could offer an amendment to give the NNSA more flexibility to increase oversight in certain areas, like those involving beryllium, where Department of Energy standards far exceed those used by OSHA.

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