D’AGOSTINO MEETS WITH SENATE APPROPRIATORS FOR FIRST OVERSIGHT BRIEFING ON UPF

NNSA Administrator Tom D’Agostino met with Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) yesterday, providing the first of what is expected to be twice yearly briefings on the Uranium Processing Facility and other major NNSA projects, Alexander spokesman Jim Jeffries confirmed. Feinstein and Alexander, the chair and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, called for the briefings as part of their version of the Fiscal Year 2013 Energy and Water Appropriations Act due to their concern over ballooning costs on major NNSA projects and the agency’s management of the projects. The briefings were suggested as a way to increase Congressional oversight of the projects that cost in excess of $750 million, allowing lawmakers to keep track of cost increases, schedule delays or scope changes. “We’re going to redouble our efforts on trying to do our job and making sure that spending in NNSA and other parts of the DOE is efficiently done,” Alexander said at a markup of the subcommittee’s bill earlier this year.