The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2018 energy and water appropriations bill calls on the National Nuclear Security Administration to address lingering cost and schedule concerns in its modernization and infrastructure programs as it boosts agency funding by nearly $1 billion.
The legislation, which on Wednesday passed the chamber’s Appropriations Committee and will next be considered by the full House, provides the Energy Department almost $30 billion, representing a decrease of $857.6 million from its current funding level. Of that amount, the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration would receive $13.9 billion.
That funding includes $10.2 billion for the NNSA’s weapons activities, up by $921.3 million from the current level. Of this, $4 billion would go toward directed stockpile work, an increase of $669 million from the current amount, for the agency’s warhead life-extension programs.
The legislation directs the NNSA to assess the affordability of its modernization programs in future versions of its Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan, including “options to bring its estimates of modernization funding needs into alignment with potential future budgets.” It also calls for a report to Congress on the agency’s plan to reduce the rate at which it charges administrative costs to the weapons programs account – an issue of potentially unallowable spending the Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General has repeatedly identified.
Another $2.8 billion under weapons activities would be granted for infrastructure and operations, maintaining this year’s funding level. That includes $848.5 million for operation of facilities at the eight NNSA sites, $395 million for maintenance and repair, and $43 million for excess facility disposition at the Pantex Plant in Texas, the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee, and other locations.
The bill specifically directs the NNSA to address the risks posed by aging facilities, expressing concern that the agency’s infrastructure activities do not “adequately address the need to reduce the high maintenance and operating cost of its facilities or the need to control project scope to provide the best value to the taxpayer while still meeting requirements.” Part of this effort would include reducing the $3.7 billion backlog of deferred maintenance across the complex.
The infrastructure account includes $620 million for the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 but defers any additional funding for cost growth in the project until the NNSA submits a full independent cost estimate to Congress. The bill notes that the NNSA’s cost estimates for design, equipment, and construction activities have increased, leading the agency to direct $403 million of its project contingency funds to the UPF as it asks Congress for an additional $43 million above its initial estimates for fiscal 2018.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry late last month said the project remains on track for completion by 2025 at a cost of no more than $6.5 billion. The Uranium Processing Facility will replace aging existing facilities with a set of buildings to house enriched uranium processing operations in support of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. The project received $575 million in the current budget; the design portion is expected to be 90 percent complete by early fall, at which point construction may begin.
Some lawmakers raised concerns during a House Appropriations Committee markup this week over the proposed funding increase for NNSA activities and simultaneous cuts to other Energy Department programs. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) submitted and withdrew an amendment that proposed moving $921 million from nuclear weapons work to the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, arguing that additional nuclear weapons funding is unnecessary if it is “gutting the [DOE] office responsible for research and application of technology to increase energy efficiency and renewable energy.”
The Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee has not yet released its version of the DOE funding legislation. Meanwhile, the House this week took up its fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, passing it on Friday. The bill grants the NNSA $14.2 billion, including $10.4 billion for weapons activities and $1.9 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation.
Among the amendments the House approved was one that would require the NNSA to report to Congress a list of its unfunded priorities.
The Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday released its version of the NDAA, which would grant the NNSA $14.5 billion, including $10.5 billion for weapons activities and $2 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation.
