June 17, 2014

Senate E&W Approps Zeroes Out Funding for Cruise Missile Warhead Study

By ExchangeMonitor

The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee cleared its version of the Fiscal Year 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, zeroing out funding for work on a refurbished cruise missile warhead and drawing quick criticism from a Republican Senator on the panel. As the panel unveiled some details of its funding bill, matching the Obama Administration’s $8.3 billion request for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program, Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said he would fight a decision to cut a $9.4 million request for a study on the cruise missile warhead. By contrast, the House Appropriations Committee is set today to provide $17 million for the program in its version of the bill. “It’s very important that funding continues,” Hoeven said, noting that DOE and DoD have laid out a plan to produce a First Production Unit on the warhead in 2027. “We have to be very careful about slowing down that funding and even the smaller amount of funding at this point will leverage that effort in a very, very important way.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of the subcommittee, said it would not be prudent to fund the cruise missile warhead study until the Air Force commits to moving forward on the replacement and establishes requirements. She said the delay would not impact the performance or reliability of the current warhead, the W80. “The Air Force has no funding budgeted in the out-years to build a cruise missile warhead and before NNSA proceeds with the design of this weapon at a minimum there should be clear military requirements and the Air Force should identify needed resources,” she said. While the subcommittee won’t release full details of the bill until the full Senate Appropriations Committee marks up the bill Thursday, several other highlights were revealed yesterday:

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) said the bill matches the Administration’s request for work on the B61 refurbishment and provides $35.7 million to equip Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Radiological Laboratory Utility Office Building and $3.8 million to begin studying a new modular approach to help meet the lab’s plutonium capabilities;
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the ranking member of the panel, said language in the bill would require the Red Team that recommended scaling back the Uranium Processing Facility to review the project every six months; and
A total of $151 million was provided for the Exascale Computing initiative, split between the NNSA ($60 million) and the Office of Science ($91 million).

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