March 17, 2014

DEMS LINE UP AMENDMENTS TO ROLL BACK NNSA REFORM EFFORT

By ExchangeMonitor

With debate set to begin on the bill today, House Democrats are gearing up to try to roll back some of the NNSA reform provisions in the bill. Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.), Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) submitted an amendment to the House Rules Committee that would strip out language in the bill that eliminates HSS oversight from the NNSA, shifts the agency toward performance-based oversight and weakens the DNFSB. The Rules Committee will decide today what amendments are introduced on the House floor.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) has an amendment that would restore the Secretary of Energy’s authority over the NNSA, while several other amendments deal with funding decisions made by the House Armed Services Committee. An amendment authored by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) would cut the $100 million in funding the committee authorized for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility, while an amendment by Sanchez and Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) would authorize $7.58 billion in funding for the NNSA’s weapons program, matching the Administration’s request and well short of the $7.9 billion authorized by the bill. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the architect of the NNSA reform provisions, submitted his own amendment that would tweak some of the bill’s language, clarifying language to ensure that “ ‘adequate protection’ is the applicable nuclear safety standard for defense nuclear facilities; that nuclear safety policies, regulations, analysis, and recommendations should be risk-based;” and that nothing in the bill “shall be construed to require a reduction in nuclear safety standards.”

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