APPROPRIATORS SEE SAVINGS IN CONSOLIDATION OF DOE, NNSA FUNCTIONS

Sparked in part by a Department of Energy Inspector General report on management challenges at DOE, Congressional appropriators are pushing to merge the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Congressional Affairs with similar functions within the Department. Registering concern with “overlap and duplication” between NNSA’s Office of Congressional Affairs, the Department of Energy’s Office of Congressional Affairs, and the DOE Chief Financial Officer’s External Coordination (ExCo) office, appropriators directed the Department to propose consolidating the NNSA office with its counterparts in the final version of the Fiscal Year 2012 omnibus appropriations act. They suggested that the consolidation could provide $1 to $2 million in budgetary savings. “The conferees believe that the CFO ExCo can provide appropriate liaison support to the Committee on Appropriations and that one consolidated Congressional Affairs office can provide adequate support to the rest of the legislative branch,” appropriators said in the conference report accompanying the bill.