GOP Fends Off Major Cut to NNSA Weapons Program
Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
5/23/2014
Wrapping up its work on the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act this week, the Republican-led House turned away an attempt to strip $100 million in authorized funding from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program and adopted language that would prevent implementation of the New START Treaty while Russia occupies Crimea. The House voted to pass the bill 325-98, authorizing funding for the NNSA and making major policy decisions while sifting through hundreds of amendments. A handful dealt with the NNSA, including an amendment drafted by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) that would have shifted $100 million in authorized funding from the NNSA’s weapons program to pay for 10 radar upgrades to Air National Guard F-15C/D aircraft.
The amendment, which was defeated 229-192, was opposed by House Republicans, who have pushed for more funding for the nation’s nuclear stockpile, authorizing $8.45 billion for the NNSA’s weapons program in the bill, an increase over the Administration’s $8.31 billion budget request. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, called the amendment a “sly attempt to undercut and undermine our nuclear deterrent by pitting us against the Air National Guard.” He added: “Over the last three years, the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons program is already a total of $2 billion short of the funding the Administration committed in 2010. The Administration committed to this funding to win ratification of the New START Treaty. Now that it is a treaty, it is unwilling to request the money the nuclear deterrent needs. We must hold the administration to its commitment, provide the money, and oppose this amendment.”
Amendments Trim W76, B61 Funding
While the Blumenauer amendment was defeated, a pair of amendments by Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) were adopted by voice vote, trimming a small amount of authorized funding for the NNSA’s W76 and B61 refurbishment programs. One amendment trimmed $2.5 million in authorized funding from each program to go toward financial literacy training for military service members, while another amendment cut $5 million from each program for a study on caring for wounded soldiers.
Amendment Would Halt New START Implementation
The House also adopted an amendment drafted by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) that would prevent the Department of Defense from spending money in Fiscal Year 2015 to implement the New START Treaty over concerns about Russia. The implementation of the treaty would be halted as long as Russia occupies Crimea and threatens the sovereignty of Ukraine, continues to take “actions that are inconsistent” with the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty and remains in noncompliance with the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty. “The United States should not be spending money to disarm ourselves—to dramatically cut our strategic nuclear deterrent under the New START Treaty—if the other party to the treaty is not trustworthy,” Lamborn said. “At the moment, the Russian Federation is clearly not trustworthy.” The amendment passed by a vote of 233-191.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, acknowledged that Russia was not trustworthy, but said it was valuable to maintain cooperation with Moscow on arms control matters. “Obviously, Russia has proven itself untrustworthy, but they have consistently reduced their nuclear weapons arsenal as a result of treaties that were first negotiated by Ronald Reagan, and many others. They have also worked cooperatively with us to contain nuclear material, which has been enormously important,” Smith said, noting the threat of a terrorist getting a hold of a nuclear weapon or nuclear material. “Having some measure of cooperation with them to contain and reduce that material is enormously important,” he added. “That is the goal of the [New] START Treaty.” A separate amendment drafted by Lamborn also stripped language from the bill that would’ve put an end date of 2021 on a requirement to keep ICBM silos in warm standby.
Push for Nonproliferation Budget Flexibility Falls Short
The chamber rejected an amendment drafted by Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) by a vote of 227-194 that would have given the Department of Defense the same flexibility to transfer budget authority to the NNSA’s nonproliferation program that it has with the NNSA’s weapons program and Naval Reactors account. “It does not remove funding from weapons programs or Naval Reactor Program, but it provides DOD the flexibility to allocate funding to areas which they believe will effectively secure dangerous nuclear material and to respond to emergencies and threats as they may arise,” Sanchez said.
Speaking in opposition of the amendment, Rogers said allowing the language would dilute the intent of the language. “Keeping the underlying language sends a clear message to NNSA that nuclear weapons activities and Naval Reactors are the NNSA’s primary mission and that it must prioritize those missions and deliver what the military needs,” Rogers said. “Any defense funds transferred out of DOD should only be used for activities in line with DOD priorities.”
Importance of Nuclear Triad Emphasized
Language reaffirming the importance of the nuclear triad and the nation’s nuclear deterrent was also adopted by a voice vote, as was a “Sense of Congress” amendment drafted by Rogers that determines that Ukraine should prevent its defense industries from providing support to Russia’s nuclear forces. An amendment submitted by Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) that would force the Administration to create an interagency plan for verification and monitoring as it relates to the proliferation of nuclear weapons and fissile material was also adopted by a voice vote, and the chamber also adopted a provision drafted by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) that seeks to prioritize nuclear security and nonproliferation activities, though the amendment was watered down from its original form and only includes a requirement for the Department of Defense to submit a report to Congress on how it will manage its nuclear forces, nonproliferation and counterterrorism activities. The amendment initially would have also created a principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense in the form of an Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Security and Nonproliferation.
The House also adopted by a voice vote an amendment drafted by Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) to provide a $20 million boost in authorized funding to defense environmental cleanup funding, taking the money from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Inertial Confinement Fusion Ignition and High-Yield Campaign. Another Hastings amendment that would bar a study of plutonium disposition alternatives to using the controversial Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility from assessing or discussing options that would move plutonium into Washington State was also adopted by a voice vote (see related story). The House also adopted an amendment drafted by Blumenauer that requires the Congressional Budget Office to provide an annual review of cost estimates for maintaining the nuclear deterrent. Earlier this year the CBO estimated that it would cost $355 billion to maintain the deterrent over the next 10 years.
Administration Outlines Opposition
A host of provisions in the bill drew the attention of the Obama Administration, which issued a veto threat of the bill as the House began debate. In a Statement of Administration Policy, the Administration said it opposes language in the bill that would speed up work on a new air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) warhead and quicken efforts to establish a plutonium pit production capacity. In the SAP, the Administration said moving up a First Production Unit for the ALCM to 2024 “would require increased funding through FY 2019 and significant cuts in other programs,” while it said establishing the capability to produce 30 pits by 2023 and 50 by 2026 would “unnecessarily increase risk by requiring further trade-offs with other nuclear weapons programs. The Administration believes the plan put forward in the FY 2015 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan represents the best balance of programs to maintain the deterrent and provide for a responsive infrastructure.” A provision to limit the size of NNSA federal staff to 1,650 full-time employees also was opposed.
The Administration also said it opposed language requiring construction to continue on the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in FY 2015 as well as a provision requiring the Pentagon to keep all of its 450 ICBM silos in warm status through 2021—a provision that was altered by Lamborn’s amendment to remove the 2021 sunset date during debate on the bill. A $93 million reduction in authorized funding for the NNSA’s Second Line of Defense program to install radiation detection equipment at key border crossings around the world also was opposed by the Administration, which suggested that “abruptly removing SLD capabilities would result in gaps in our defenses that cannot be filled by any other program.”
The Administration also said it opposed provisions that would limit nuclear security and nonproliferation cooperation between the U.S. and Russia, arguing that “cooperation with Russia remains an essential element to the global effort to address the threat posed by nuclear terrorism. Critical bilateral nuclear nonproliferation activities are continuing in a number of key areas, and nuclear security is of paramount importance. The blanket restriction on the use of funds for ‘contact’ or ‘cooperation’ between the United States and the Russian Federation unconstitutionally interferes with the President’s constitutional authority to conduct diplomacy.”
