HOUSE APPROPS TO BEGIN FY14 BUDGET PROCESS WITH NNSA HEARING

House appropriators are preparing to write Fiscal Year 2014 spending bills, with or without a budget request from President Obama. The committee will begin that process this week when the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee holds a budget hearing on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program. Acting Administrator Neile Miller, Defense Programs chief Don Cook and new Principal Assistant Deputy Administrator for Military Application Col. James Dawkins will appear before the subcommittee at 10 a.m. Thursday. The only thing missing will be a budget blueprint from the Obama Administration. The FY 2014 budget submission has been delayed because of uncertainty about massive government-wide spending cuts that were set to go into effect at the beginning of the year but have been pushed back until the start of March. Thursday’s hearing is expected to deal with FY 2013 and FY 2014 spending issues: how the agency has spent money during the current Continuing Resolution funding the government, what impacts sequestration might bring, and how priorities for FY 2014 might change. The goal, NW&M Monitor has learned, is for House appropriators to begin to write FY 2014 bills in an effort to avoid the need for a CR in October at the same time that appropriators write stopgap funding legislation for the second half of FY 2013.