A Congressionally panel that will be formed to take a look at governance options for the National Nuclear Security Administration is facing an uncertain start due to complications with the Continuing Resolution that is currently funding the government, Congressional staffers said Friday at the Nuclear Deterrence Summit. Because the panel would be funded by $3 million that was authorized in the Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Authorization Act, there are questions about whether the creation of the committee would represent the start of a new program, which is prohibited under the Continuing Resolution. “The Department of Defense general counsel and the comptroller is going to have to figure that out,” Drew Walter, a majority staffer with the House Armed Services Committee, said at the summit. “There may be some delay in getting this going but our intention is to have our nominees in place by the March 1 deadline, which is fast approaching obviously.”
The 12-member panel will be selected by the House and Senate Armed Services committees and leadership of the House and Senate, with each committee selecting four members and House and Senate leadership selecting two members apiece. The panel is required to start its work by March 1 and complete its report Feb. 1, 2014. Walter said the House Armed Services Committee, which led a push for NNSA reform last year, won’t wait for the panel to complete its work this year before moving out on some new reform plans. “We believe there are things we can we can still do that are good, common sense reforms that we hopefully can get some consensus on and we can push through,” he said. “They probably won’t be as grand in scope as we tried to do last year. Last year’s effort was very considered to be an idea that we put on the table. And we’re looking to generate other ideas and have the debate and have the discussion and arrive at a solution. That didn’t happen so we’re going to do some less ambitious things but still things we think will help.”
