Following two days of debate and consideration of scores of amendments, the House of Representatives late Thursday voted 277-147 to approve its National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2017. However, that vote count would not be sufficient to override a veto threatened by the White House over various measures in the legislation, including funding for the Obama administration’s preferred program for disposition of surplus nuclear weapon-usable plutonium.
The $610.5 billion legislation would authorize $13.3 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration and includes amendments tying funding restrictions to mandates for periodic reports on adversary military capabilities and nuclear concerns. The chairman’s mark would authorize $9.6 billion for NNSA weapons activities and $1.9 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation.
The Senate is expected to consider its version of the legislation next week.
The House bill demands that the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration use funds authorized under the disposition of weapons-usable plutonium line item for construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, unless the secretary of energy provides various items to the congressional defense committees. These include: an updated performance baseline for construction and project support for the MOX project; notification that the secretary has moved to initiate talks with a foreign government on alternative methods of plutonium disposition – a clear reference to Russia, as both countries are required to eliminate 34 metric tons of plutonium under a bilateral deal finalized in 2010; and a pledge “to remove plutonium from South Carolina and ensure a sustainable future for the Savannah River Site.”
The Department of Energy’s fiscal 2017 spending plan would provide $285 million for a program to dilute the plutonium at Savannah River and ship the material for permanent storage at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Department leaders say this approach would save billions of dollars and years of time over the MOX approach.
In a statement of policy this week, the White House acknowledged the flexibility given in the House NDAA to kill off the MOX project upon meeting the list of requirements. “However, the Administration objects to a delay in funding the alternative plutonium disposition option and the effort to require continued construction in support of the MOX approach,” according to the statement. “Continuing construction, even temporarily, will result in additional millions of dollars being wasted rather than being directed to the alternative disposition method. The already-proven alternative method of disposition is expected to be significantly faster and less expensive than the MOX approach and has far lower risks.”
The Senate’s full 1,666-page NDAA, which authorizes $602 billion in spending, was released Thursday. It calls on the secretary of energy to reach agreement with the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study whether elements of the current cost-plus contract for the MOX plant – held by CB&I AREVA MOX Services – can be revised “to reduce risk and cost 21 to the Department of Energy while preserving a fair and reasonable contract.” It specifically cites potential use of a fixed-price provision, fixed-price incentive-fee provision, or “another contractual mechanism designed to minimize risk to the Department of 14 Energy while reducing cost.”
The Corps would have 30 days to submit its report to DOE, which would then have 60 days to deliver a report to the congressional defense committees and U.S. comptroller general on whether the contractor would accept the revisions recommended by the Army Corps and forwarded by the secretary.
The House this week considered a number of amendments to the NDAA related to the National Nuclear Security Administration and nuclear arms issues more broadly. Approved proposals included:
- An amendment offered by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) to increase by $82.4 million funding for an Army surface-to-air missile program by taking the amount out of the NNSA’s atomic energy defense, defense nuclear nonproliferation, and material management and minimization accounts;
- An amendment offered by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) to require the Government Accountability Office to list the most common grounds for sustaining contract bid protests in its annual report to Congress;
- An amendment from Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) that would prohibit spending more than 50 percent of the funds authorized for the Office of the Secretary of Energy until the secretary submits the Aug. 15, 2014, report, “U.S. Nuclear Deterrence in the Coming Decades,” to Congress.
- An amendment from Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) to sanction entities that have played a role in another country’s violation of arms control agreements with the U.S. – understood to mean Russia’s violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty – by prohibiting government agencies from initiating or extending procurement contracts with the entity;
- Another amendment from Rogers that directs the secretary of energy to issue regulations on mitigating the threat of unmanned aircraft to the security of NNSA facilities that host special nuclear material;
- An amendment offered by Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) that would create a Global Engagement Center to track “foreign government information warfare efforts,” develop strategies to counter those campaigns, and offer $20 million in funding for outside groups to support this work;
- An amendment offered by Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) that would prohibit reductions in the alert level of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles and number of deployed ICBMs;
- An amendment offered by Rep. Ben Lujan (D-N.M.) that expresses the sense of Congress that the secretary of energy should ensure NNSA site contractors implement consistent accounting practices for site lab, plant, or site-directed research and development; and
- An amendment offered by Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.) that would require the director of national intelligence, along with the secretaries of defense, energy, and state, to submit to Congress a report on the feasibility of developing low-enriched uranium fuel for future U.S. naval reactors.
The Senate last week passed its $37.5 billion energy appropriations bill for fiscal 2017, including $31 billion for the Department of Energy. The House has yet to start floor action on its $37.4 billion bill. Both the Senate and House versions of the legislation provide $12.9 billion for the NNSA.
The House bill provides $340 million to sustain construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project and prohibits the use of these funds to place the project in cold standby, or suspended with the option of resuming activity should the need arise. The Senate legislation provides $270 million for MOX and gives the secretary of energy reprogramming authority to reallocate funds from one construction project to another, or to change the scope of an approved project.
