March 17, 2014

MONIZ: FUNDING ‘ANOMALY’ IN CR AN OPTION FOR WEAPONS PROGRAM

By ExchangeMonitor

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz raised the possibility during a visit yesterday to New Mexico that the Administration might seek an “anomaly” for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program in upcoming discussions about a Continuing Resolution to fund federal work after Oct. 1. “In the end Congress has to pass budgets, otherwise we’ll just have to keep scrambling and of course there is always the anomaly pathway as a potential approach,” Moniz told the Albuquerque Journal in an interview during his visit to Sandia National Laboratories. But Moniz was careful to shield internal deliberations, the newspaper reported. The weapons program has consistently received funding anomalies in CRs since debate on the New START Treaty in late 2010 spawned promises by the Administration to modernize the nation’s weapons program and nuclear arsenal. “I can’t discuss those specifics; that’s obviously internal Administration negotiation,” the Journal quoted Moniz as saying.

Much of the public events Moniz attended focused on the Administration’s climate and energy initiatives, with a tour of a biology lab working on algae fuel at Los Alamos and demonstrations of a new climate change simulation at Sandia. But Moniz also added the nation’s nuclear deterrent to his list of top Administration priorities when he spoke publicly at Sandia. “We’re at the center of the President’s very high priorities,” he told a gathering of Sandia employees and reporters at the end of his tour. “We have very major responsibilities to carry out.” But unresolved questions about funding weigh heavily on the Department and the labs, he acknowledged. “We’re all suffering under a lot of uncertainty on the budgets,” he said. “We don’t know what the future’s going to be.”

Comments are closed.