The National Nuclear Security Administration told the House Armed Services Committee that it is already doing enough to address oversight and management issues plaguing the agency, suggesting that the panel’s reform legislation was unnecessary. In a six-page letter to Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) and Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner (R-Ohio) earlier this month, NNSA Administrator Tom D’Agostino detailed actions the agency says is already undertaking to enhance efficiency, increase productivity and improve relationships with the contractors that run its plants and laboratories. Frustrated with the productivity of the agency, the committee inserted language in the House-passed version of the Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Authorization Act that increases the autonomy of the agency, eliminates Department of Energy Office of Health, Safety and Security oversight of the agency, moves the agency toward performance-based oversight, and cuts back on federal staff.
The Obama Administration has publicly opposed the language, and D’Agostino said action already taken by the agency includes efforts to revise, consolidate and eliminate safety and security directives, develop governance reform metrics, revise contractual requirements, and implement a pilot program emphasizing strategic results over transaction-based oversight. The agency also created a new Associate Administrator for Acquisition and Project Management as well as an Associate Administrator for Infrastructure and Operations, reorganized its site office reporting structure, and moved to consolidate the management and operating contracts at the Y-12 National Security Complex and the Pantex Plant, among other initiatives. “The Department shares the Committee’s commitment to enhancing the efficiency of government oversight while ensuring that critical nuclear security activities are conducted in a safe and secure environment,” D’Agostino wrote. “… Led by Secretary Chu, a former lab director, the Department is working actively to increase the efficiency of our oversight and to improve our approach to working with our partners. We believe that our ongoing efforts will be more effective at addressing those issues than prescriptive legislation.”
