Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee fended off several attempts by Democrats to water down the panel’s dramatic National Nuclear Security Administration reform efforts, making only small concessions on provisions designed to increase the agency’s productivity and efficiency. Reps. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) offered several measures to roll back the reform provisions. Andrews offered an amendment that would’ve removed provisions in the bill that cut the Department of Energy’s Office of Health, Safety and Security from its oversight role of the agency and strengthened the authority of the NNSA. For her part, Sanchez offered several amendments, including one that would have removed limitations on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board that Sanchez said would “detract from nuclear safety oversight under the guise of improving the DNFSB and NNSA relationship” and make the Board “ineffective.” She also unsuccessfully offered an amendment to prevent a shift to performance-based oversight for health, safety and security at the NNSA.
In response to the concerns, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, made some minor changes to the NNSA reform language in the bill, increasing the NNSA’s flexibility to increase oversight in certain areas, like those involving beryllium, where Department of Energy standards far exceed those used by OSHA. Turner’s amendment also softens the subcommittee’s move to cut the size of NNSA headquarters staff. Sanchez, who explained the seven amendments she offered by saying “It’s not my fault the subcommittee was crazy this year,” also offered language to trim the amount of funding authorized for the NNSA’s weapons program back to the $7.58 billion level set by the President’s budget request, and not the $7.9 billion authorized by the committee.