Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) said Tuesday she wants the next Department of Energy budget bill to prohibit spending that contributes in any way to nuclear-explosive tests.
Titus made the request during the House Appropriations Committee’s annual member day hearing, which gives congresspeople a few minutes to publicly discuss measures they want in the various appropriations bills for federal agencies. The committee conducted the hearing online this year amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“I would ask you and this committee to work with me to help mandate that no federal funds may be set aside or used for this dangerous experiment that would dangerously put Nevadans and all Americans in danger and restart the Cold War … nuclear arms race,” Titus, who represents the Las Vegas region, told committee Chairwoman Nina Lowey (D-N.Y.).
Titus has already produced legislative language that would do just that, as part of a bill she drafted with Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), whose congressional district includes the Nevada National Security Site.
The House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee is scheduled to mark up its fiscal 2021 budget bill on July 7. However, the biggest funding fights could come the following Monday, July 10, when the full Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider the legislation. Politico reported the dates, citing a Dear Colleagues letter from Lowey.
Energy and water appropriations acts provide funds for nuclear weapons programs managed by DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and for the cleanup of shuttered nuclear-weapon production sites managed by the department’s Office of Environmental Management. The bill also funds the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The Washington Post in May reported that some in the Donald Trump administration supported a rapid nuclear-explosive test as a means of inducing Russia and China to negotiate a trilateral nuclear arms control pact. The Post said officials discussed the idea during a meeting with Trump, attended by representatives of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The Senate version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would authorize $10 million to “carry out projects related to reducing the time required to execute a nuclear test if necessary.”
The then-Nevada Test Site was through 1992 used for hundreds of atmospheric and underground explosive tests to verify the continued functioning of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The NNSA has for decades used subcritical experiments and other scientific and engineering means to perform that work.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), chair of the Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, also during the meeting decried any potential resumption of testing. Kaptur has already said she will not provide the $20 billion in funding the NNSA seeks for fiscal 2021, which begins Oct.1.
