September 17, 2014

NNSA Advisory Panel Wrapping Up Work, but Report’s Release Before or After Election Unclear

By ExchangeMonitor

The Congressional advisory panel on the governance of the nuclear security enterprise is close to completing its work, co-chairman Norm Augustine said in a recent interview with NS&D Monitor, but it’s unclear when the report will be released. Speaking on the sidelines of a National Lab Day event Tuesday, Augustine said it’s still being determined whether to release the report before or after the November elections. “That’s one thing that’s being debated right now and it’s kind of above our pay grade,” Augustine said. “The question obviously is we don’t want it to land on a lame duck Congress and we don’t want it to land in the middle of a terribly political environment such as just before an election, so I think we could if it made sense have it ready before the election. The question is, and it’s above my pay grade, is when does it make sense.”

Augustine said a final coordination had been completed by the 12-member panel and that he and co-chair Richard Mies would review it in the next few days before sending it out to the members for approvals. He said he didn’t expect any major disagreements from the panel members, but declined to offer specifics about the panel’s recommendations. NS&D Monitor previously reported that the panel is preparing to call for the authority of the National Nuclear Security Administration to be strengthened within the Department of Energy as a fix for the agency’s woes.

Congress has called on the panel to be “bold” in its recommendations, and Augustine said he felt the panel would be up to the task. The panel unveiled its initial findings earlier this year, calling the creation of the semi-autonomous national Nuclear Security Administration a “failed experiment.” The panel’s final report was due July 1. “There is boldness to the extent of being grandstanding and irrational. We’ve tried to be responsibly bold,” he said. “I think anybody who reads it will probably say, ‘Boy, there are some very significant changes we’ve proposed.’ Did we come up with something anybody never thought of before? Probably not.”

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