Department of Defense control over the Department of Energy budget, including for the Hanford nuclear reservation and national labs, has been slipped into a Senate bill.
The legislation is dangerous, said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., in a speech on the Senate floor Monday.
It would remove checks and balances on the nation’s nuclear weapons program, wrestling away civilian control of the nation’s nuclear arsenal and giving it to the military, she said.
The language in the bill also would allow the Department of Defense “to raid dollars used by the Department of Energy” for cleanup of nuclear waste and for energy research, including at national laboratories like Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, she said. The money could instead be spent on the nation’s nuclear arsenal.
Cantwell and other senators are asking the Senate Armed Services Committee, which inserted the language in the National Defense Authorization Act, to remove it.
Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette also is opposing the proposed legislation, saying in a Monday letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee leadership that management of the nation’s nuclear weapon capabilities is his most important responsibility.
“Congress originally assigned the creation and sustainment of the nation’s nuclear deterrent to the Atomic Energy Commission (the precursor of DOE) in 1946 to ensure a balance between resource allocation, military necessity and civilian control,” he said. “The secretary of energy, coordinating with the secretary of defense, plays a critical role in achieving this balance.”
The legislation would require the energy secretary to send the proposed budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semi-autonomous agency within DOE, to the Nuclear Weapons Council for a review to determine if it is adequate to meet Defense Department nuclear weapons objectives.
