The National Nuclear Security Administration will deliver a report to Congress on its response to the recommendations of the Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise in three to four weeks, NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz told the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee yesterday. The timeline represents a delay from previous statements by Klotz which suggested the report could be submitted to Congress last week. Klotz emphasized that the Department of Energy and NNSA agrees with many of the recommendations from the panel chaired by former Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine and former Strategic Command chief Adm. Richard Mies and has been working to strengthen program management and project management and shore up its relationship with the Department of Defense.
However, the NNSA hasn’t commented on how it views some of the panel’s most significant recommendations, including its call to move the semi-autonomous agency back under the control of the Department of Energy. It also called for the NNSA administrator to be given a fixed term and for the heads of the agency’s weapons and nonproliferation programs to be members of the Senior Executive Service rather than political appointees to help maintain continuity. It also recommended that the Secretary of Energy’s national security credentials be strengthened by requiring the Secretary to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee during the confirmation process.