A half-decade after Congress gave the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) special authority to bar certain suppliers from providing components for nuclear weapons, the agency still has exercised that power, the Government Accountability Office said this week.
The new report is the third time the congressional watchdog has checked in on the agency’s use, or non-use, of the enhanced procurement authority since Congress established it in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014. The authority allows the agency to outright block from procurement competitions companies deemed a potential avenue for foreign or domestic sabotage of nuclear weapons.
Companies blocked by that authority would have no standing to sue the NNSA in court.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) did not say exactly why the NNSA had not exercised its enhanced procurement authority, nor until recently had the agency assessed whether it had the resources and competence to use the power, if necessary.
It is not simple for the NNSA to use the authority. Legally, Congress gave the authority to the secretary of energy, who delegated it to the agency. If the NNSA wants to make an enhanced procurement, the agency must secure written approval from the energy secretary, who has to provide a written justification for exercising the authority, brief Congress on the decision, and warn other federal agencies about the potentially compromised components covered by the action.
So, in this week’s report, the GAO suggested the NNSA let Congress know, by the end of the year, how lawmakers could change the enhanced procurement authority to make it easier for the agency to exercise.
Submitting these suggestions quickly to lawmakers could allow the agency’s preferred changes, if any, to be included in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. The House and Senate have each passed a version of the annual military policy bill, which also sets funding limits for defense programs, including those in the NNSA.
In a letter appended to the GAO’s 13-page report, NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty said the semiautonomous weapons agency was vetting a report for Congress about making it easier to use the enhanced procurement authority and would attempt to deliver it to Capitol Hill by Sept. 30.
