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 today between lawmakers and top managers from the agency and the Pentagon.
The so-called paper hearing was scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. The committee had not announced a makeup date at deadline. An Armed Services Committee spokesperson did not reply to a request for comment about why the sessionwas canceled.
The committee established “paper hearings” to prevent public gatherings during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 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 are 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 2020 appropriation of more than $16.5 billion for the agency.
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, while Gordon-Hagerty pushed for the bigger number.
