Construction authority for some facilities would transfer from NNSA to DOD under House provision
Published: Thu, 05/10/12
The House Armed Services Committee sent a strong message of lack of confidence in NNSA by voting to move all construction authority for certain facilities from NNSA to DOD. The panel adopted the provision yesterday during consideration of the Fiscal Year 2013 (FY13) National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 4310), which passed early this morning and is scheduled for consideration by the full House next week.
The provision would apply to "any project to build a nuclear facility, initiated on or after October 1, 2013, that is estimated to cost in excess of $1,000,000,000 and is intended to be primarily utilized to support the nuclear weapons activities of the National Nuclear Security Administration." The provision would also apply to the CMRR project in Los Alamos and the UPF project in Oak Ridge.
All covered projects would be "deemed to be military construction projects to be carried out with respect to a military installation" and therefore subject to military construction requirements, as described in the amendment.
NNSA and DOE would "retain authority to regulate design and construction activities pursuant to the Atomic Energy Act and other applicable laws."
"Upon completion of construction" of such facilities, DOD "shall negotiate" with NNSA "to transfer the constructed facility to the authority of the Administrator for operations."
Speaking of the CMRR project, Congressman Turner (R-OH), who sponsored the provision, said "the reason why the facility has fallen behind is because of NNSA's inability to execute and bring this project on line." See the provision here.
See the House Armed Services Committee's FY13 National Defense Authorization Act update center here. The Senate plans to hold subcommittee markups on its version of the FY13 National Defense Authorization Act during the week of May 21.
ECA will continue to monitor the FY13 appropriations and authorization processes. |
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