The Senate Armed Services Committee called off an exchange of letters and statements about the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget that was scheduled for Thursday between lawmakers and top managers from the agency and the Pentagon.
The committee had not announced a makeup date at deadline for the so-called paper hearing, which was delayed in order to give the Pentagon more time to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
So were all other paper hearings planned before the panel.
“Recognizing the additional burden on the Department of Defense at this critical time, Chairman Inhofe and Ranking Member Reed have agreed to postpone future paper hearings until the Committee has more clarity on the COVID-19 situation,” the committee said in a statement.
The Armed Services Committee established “paper hearings” to prevent public gatherings during the ongoing public health emergency. In paper hearings, lawmakers plan to post opening statements from its leadership and witnesses online at the scheduled start of the session. At the same time, the panel would transmit written questions from committee members to the witnesses, who would have at least a week to file answers.
The committee would publish the questions and answers only once the questions were answered.
Scheduled witnesses were:
- Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette
- Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, administrator of DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment
- Adm. Charles Richard, commander of U.S. Strategic Command
The NNSA, which manages the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons programs, requested nearly $20 billion in funding for fiscal 2021. That would be about a 25% increase from the appropriation of more than $16.5 billion for current budget year ending Sept. 30.
Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) was one of the lawmakers who helped personally make the case for a larger NNSA budget to President Donald Trump in January. Brouillette reportedly favored less spending, around $17.5 billion, while Gordon-Hagerty pushed for the bigger number.
