The House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday approved legislation requiring the Homeland Security Department’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) to prepare documentation laying out the rationale for its research and development spending.
The DHS branch is tasked with working with domestic and international partners to strengthen global capacities to detect, prevent, respond to, and identify the culprits in an attack involving nuclear or radiological materials. It is seeking $151.6 million for research and development in fiscal 2017, which begins on Oct. 1.
Speaking at a committee markup session, bill sponsor Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) noted a 2015 Government Accountability Office report that he said found that improved documentation would strengthen the efficacy of DNDO’s transformational and applied research directorate. The review determined that DNDO needed to better show more transparently how research and development projects are selected for funding, Richmond said.
“Without documentation explaining how research and development projects align with research challenges, it is hard to determine whether DNDO research investments are positioned to address identified gaps in the global nuclear detection architecture,” he said. “It is my understanding that DNDO has agreed with the GAO findings and undertaken steps to correct this need a create a path forward. Enactment of H.R. 5391 will make sure that DNDO takes a systematic approach for evaluating, prioritizing, and selecting research topics.”
The Homeland Security Department defines the global nuclear detection architecture as “a framework for detecting (through technical and non-technical means), analyzing, and reporting on nuclear and other radioactive materials that are out of regulatory control.”
Richmond’s bill would specifically add language to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 requiring DNDO to: “develop and maintain documentation, such as a technology roadmap and strategy” that would provide data on how its research spending aligns with identified nuclear detection gaps globally and research challenges identified by the office’s director; show how research areas are selected and prioritized; and establish a method for determining how research outcomes support DNDO’s research challenges.
The committee approved the bill on a voice vote without amendments, sending it to the full House for consideration.
DNDO by deadline had not responded to requests for comment regarding Richmond’s bill.
In congressional testimony in April, DNDO Director Huban Gowadia said her office’s research and development operations encompass four mission areas: transformational R&D, nuclear forensics, detection capability development, and detection capability assessment. Each of these feature multiple subprograms.
She said DNDO funding in recent years has led to new technologies shifting from laboratory development to commercial availability. Examples include neutron detectors for use in portal radiation monitors, automated threat recognition software, and networked detection technology, according to Gowadia.
