Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
1/17/2014
Despite numerous management problems, the National Nuclear Security Administration should remain within the Department of Energy, Madelyn Creedon, President Obama’s nominee to serve as NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator, told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week. Creedon appeared before the committee for her confirmation hearing, and she largely breezed through the hearing, offering her take on potential ways to help restore the credibility of the agency. On the topic of NNSA governance, however, she suggested that the “legislation that established the NNSA remains sound and that it’s in the long-term best interests of the NNSA” to be part of the Department of Energy.
With cost overruns, productivity and safety and security issues plaguing the agency, weapons complex observers—including some in Congress—have called for a new look at the NNSA’s governance structure, suggesting that the agency could benefit from more autonomy from DOE, or a move outside the Department altogether. “I think having a cabinet-level agency, responsible for looking out for assisting with the NNSA is really incredible and essentially important, particularly as we look to the long-term budget debates that we know are going to continue in the future as the budget goes down,” said Creedon, who served as the head of the NNSA’s weapons program during the first year after its creation.
‘Internal Management Challenges’
During the hearing, Creedon acknowledged that there are “significant internal management challenges” within the agency, but she said the “challenges can be dealt with within the flexibility provided in the statute. At least at the moment—and obviously, if confirmed, I’ll know a little better when I get back into the NNSA again—but at least at the moment, I haven’t identified any legislative changes that I think are necessary.”
In written answers to advance policy questions, she said re-establishing solid baseline relationships within the NNSA, as well as with Congress and other cabinet agencies, would be her top priority. “Trust is clearly an issue that remains a challenge within the nuclear security enterprise, between headquarters and the field,” she wrote. “What may assist in addressing this issue is to further clarify lines of authority, responsibility, and accountability within the entire NNSA enterprise. I understand the Secretary has begun to address these management issues. It will also be critical to assess business processes to operate more efficiently as well as NNSA’s capabilities for cost estimation and program execution.”
NNSA to Continue to Lean on CAPE
Creedon suggested that the newly created Office of Cost Analysis and Program Evaluation within the NNSA that mirrors the already established DoD CAPE office would be a valuable tool for the agency moving forward. “The CAPE office in the Department of Defense has been very helpful over the course of the past 18 months in providing assistance to the Nuclear Weapons Council in determining some of the costing for several life extensions, and they’ve also been very much involved with the NNSA helping the NNSA come to grips with various costing methodologies, both for life extensions and for construction projects,” she said. “And I would hope, if confirmed, to be able to continue to draw on the expertise at CAPE, particularly for their costing experience, which is deep and extensive, as we set up a similar organization in the NNSA.”
No Avoiding Modernization Questions
Creedon also faced some questions about the Administration’s plans to modernize the nation’s nuclear arsenal and weapons complex from Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who asked whether she would try to help the NNSA restore modernization funding plans outlined during debate on the New START Treaty. “There’s some commitments that were made, and those commitments have not become a reality,” Inhofe said.
Creedon acknowledged that cost overruns have crimped the Administration’s modernization plans, causing a change of course on the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility and a look at alternatives to the Uranium Processing Facility (see related story). “One of the challenges I think that has occurred over time is some of the elements that were supposed to be covered by those funds have ended up costing more, so it’s caused a delay of the plutonium facility and also it’s caused a relook of the approach on the uranium facility,” she said.
Levin: Nomination to Move Quickly
Creedon, who was a longtime staffer on the Senate Armed Services Committee before moving to the Pentagon as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs in 2011, is not expected to have any difficulty being confirmed, and committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said the panel would move fast to clear her nomination, as well as the nominations of two other Administration officials that appeared with Creedon at her confirmation hearing. “We’ll move these nominations … even quicker than the usual in the Senate these days,” Levin said.
