Unlike many other federal agencies, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board did not receive any supplemental funding during fiscal 2021 to ensure emergency operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a financial report released Monday.
While the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) kept running without money from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of March 2020, the board dealt with the virus in other ways, according to the board’s financial report for 2021, recently released to Congress.
Most DNFSB employees continued to telecommute during 2021 and the federal safety watchdog has made all corrective actions from prior year audits of its telework program. The DNFSB is targeting a return onsite for many employees by the end of the month. The board also filed an updated pandemic response plan in December.
The Board is statutorily capped at the equivalent of 130 federal full-time employees with a minimum 110.
Most agency staffers work under the Office of the Technical Director, which carries out the safety oversight mission. There are three other organization silos at DNFSB. The Office of the Executive Director of Operations, set up in fiscal 2021, handles DNFSB’s administrative and technical operations and provides direct support to the five-member board. The Office of the General Manager oversees major administrative functions like finances and human resources. The Office of General Counsel provides legal support to the board and ensure DNFSB complies with legal requirements.
The five-member board is chaired by Joyce Connery. Other members are vice chair Thomas Summers and longtime board member Jessie Hill Roberson. There are two vacancies, which after a year in office President Joe Biden has not proposed filling.
The DNFSB is charged by Congress with providing independent safety advice and recommendations to the secretary of energy on nuclear defense facilities. The agency does not regulate DOE, which is its own regulator on defense-nuclear sites not controlled by the nuclear Navy, but the board can make safety recommendations with which the Secretary of Energy must publicly agree or disagree.
