Nonprolif. Account Funding Largely Matches $1.9 Billion Request
Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
4/17/2015
Lawmakers on the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee cleared their version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill this week, and while there is a slight funding cut for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program, subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said that funding for the agency’s warhead life extension programs has been preserved. The panel has released only top-line numbers for the bill—$8.713 billion was provided for the NNSA’s weapons program, $134 million less than President Obama’s $8.847 billion FY 2016 budget request—but Simpson said work on the W76-1, B61-12, W88 Alt 370, and W80-4 would be unscathed in the legislation. He also said that an additional $100 million was provided above the request to address the growing backlog of deferred maintenance and physical security projects, but did not provide further details. While the $8.713 billion provided by the subcommittee represents a cut from the President’s request, it is $526 million more than FY 2015 enacted levels.
With a cut of $134 million to the President’s request and a $100 million increase for deferred maintenance, cuts will have to come from somewhere, but Simpson would not reveal any details about where the subcommittee has had to look for savings. In documents put out by the panel, there was no mention of the NNSA’s biggest construction project, the Uranium Processing Facility, or work to maintain Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plutonium capabilities. “Their request was pretty large and a lot of the increase in the E&W bill … was because of the weapons program,” Simpson said. “We’re going to have some conversations about that with the managers of the NNSA sites.” More detailed funding levels are not expected to be released until the full House Appropriations Committee considers the bill next week.
The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility also received full funding in the bill. The Administration requested $345 million for the facility as a “placeholder” while several studies on MOX alternatives are completed. “We funded it at a level that is kind of a standstill sort of level because we don’t know yet what their report is going to say,” Simpson said. One report is expected to come out next week, NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz said, and a second one is expected in September. “Then we need to make a determination whether were going to proceed with MOX,” Simpson said, acknowledging that if “you’re going to really do MOX you need to be up around $500 million a year.” The appropriators provided $1.918 billion for the NNSA’s nonproliferation program, largely matching the President’s $1.94 billion request.
