Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
9/5/2014
Lawmakers are expected to return from their summer recess next week and passing a Continuing Resolution to fund the government at the start of Fiscal Year 2015 will be among the top priorities. But lawmakers are expected to strive for a short-term “clean” CR—that is, one devoid of many policy riders or funding anomalies—and the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program won’t receive any funding exception, according to Congressional aides. NNSA’s weapons program has in recent years received funding anomalies in previous stopgap funding measures, but the White House Office of Management and Budget has not pushed for an anomaly this year, largely due to the short duration of the expected CR—likely through early December—and a lack of need among NNSA programs. “The bar for the short-term CR is very, very high,” one Congressional aide told NS&D Monitor. “It’s going to be tough to get anything through. There’s not going to be a huge appetite for anomalies.”
The Obama Administration requested $8.31 billion for the NNSA’s weapons program in FY 2015, a $533.9 million increase over FY 2014 enacted levels, but despite the significant increase, Congressional aides say there isn’t much of a need for a short-term anomaly for the weapons program. For its part, NNSA declined to comment on its needs in a CR. “It is not our practice to speculate on CRs. That is the purview of the OMB and the White House,” NNSA spokesman Steven Wyatt said in a statement.
Weapons Program in the Clear—For Now
The program that was the recipient of the biggest jump in requested FY 2015 funding, the B61 refurbishment, has some spending flexibility, and the funding request for other programs like the W76 refurbishment and the Uranium Processing Facility was relatively flat for FY 2015. “Right now it looks like NNSA doesn’t really have any cash flow issues for any specific programs,” the Congressional aide said. “It’s a different story going past December but for now they’ve managed their programs to maintain some reserve and contingency expecting a three-month CR.”
MOX Under CR Remains a Question Mark
The NNSA’s nonproliferation account doesn’t need a funding anomaly because the Obama Administration requested $1.55 billion for FY 2015, down $398.4 million from FY 2014, but questions remain about how it will approach one of its most controversial projects. Part of the nonproliferation cut was represented by decreased funding for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, which the Administration planned to put in cold standby in FY 2015. The Administration, however, has backed off of its plans for cold standby in recent months due to an uproar from the South Carolina Congressional delegation, and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz was noncommittal about the plans for the project during a visit to the Savannah River Site this summer.
Under the CR, the NNSA would be allowed to spend at FY 2014 funding levels, which provided $343.5 million for the project. The House version of the FY 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations Act included $345 million for the project, while Senate appropriators have included $400 million to keep construction going. The CR also would not provide Congressional approval to move away from construction. “That funding should have embedded within it enough money to continue us moving forward,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said this summer, while noting that a sustained funding stream for the project beyond FY 2015 was needed.
Moniz, however, did not definitively say that construction would continue on the project. “The budgets were increased; we all know not increased to the level that would allow for efficient, sustained operation, but all with very clear—as was stated—statements from Congress about the desire to maintain construction,” he said. “If the budgets in the end don’t support that well then we’ll have to act accordingly, but right now, really the play is getting first the FY ‘15 budget resolved. … We need FY ‘15 and we need a trajectory that gives adequate funding in a sustained way for the project.”
