The House of Representatives this week approved refiled legislation that would require the U.S. Homeland Security Department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office to document the value of its research and development spending.
The “Gains in Global Nuclear Detection Architecture Act” of 2017 is identical to the bill U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) submitted last year. That legislation made it through the House but never got past the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee before the end of the 114th Congress.
Richmond filed the new bill on Jan. 24, and it passed the House on Tuesday. The legislation on Wednesday was directed to the same Senate committee where it languished last year.
The bill would add a subsection to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, mandating that the DNDO director prepare and maintain documentation demonstrating how the office’s research funding addresses vulnerabilities in the “enhanced global nuclear detection architecture” and “research challenges identified by the Director.”
The Homeland Security branch would also have to file paperwork on the reasoning for promoting certain research and “develop a systematic approach, which may include annual metrics and periodic qualitative evaluations, for evaluating how the outcomes of the Office’s individual research projects collectively contribute to addressing the Office’s research challenges.”
The DNDO collaborates with domestic and international agencies to augment national capabilities to detect, prevent, respond to and identify perpetrators in an attack involving a nuclear or radiological weapon. It received $347 million in funding for fiscal 2016, which ended on Sept. 30 of last year; federal funding since then has largely remained frozen at the same levels under a series of continuing resolutions, the latest of which is due to expire on April 28.
The DNDO’s operations include the National Technical Nuclear Forensics Center, a decade-old program to augment U.S. capabilities to identify the source of nuclear or radiological material used in an attack, as well as the culprits; and the Transformational and Applied Research Directorate, which works to improve weapons material detection systems.
Neither Richmond’s office nor the Homeland Security Department responded to requests for additional information this week regarding the legislation and DNDO’s operations.
