Cleanup Funding and NNSA Funding at Odds in New Senate NDAA Provisions

Bipartisan group of Senators concerned that DOD and NNSA can decrease EM funding requests in the future

Section 3111 of the Senate’s version of the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) may significantly impact the Office of Environmental Management’s (EM) future budgets by giving the Nuclear Weapons Council (DOD and NNSA) more control over the DOE/NNSA defense budget request.

There is a bipartisan group of Senators leading an opposition to Sec. 3111, and they have introduced amendments this week to strike the provision from the final bill. Several Senators, including Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), and Patty Murray (D-WA), view Section 3111 (and other provisions that bring DOD into the DOE budget process) as problematic.

The NDAA is now on the Senate floor, where amendments will continue to be introduced and the chamber will vote on a final version shortly. Meanwhile, the House Armed Services Committee is expected to approve its version of the bill on July 1.

Specifically, Section 3111 of the Senate’s NDAA would require the Secretary of Energy to send the proposed NNSA budget request to the Nuclear Weapons Council (NWC) for a review to “determine whether it is adequate to implement Department of Defense (DOD) nuclear weapons objectives.” If the NWC believes the NNSA budget is inadequate, the council can send back new funding levels to the Secretary of Energy, who is required to implement those new levels before submitting the final budget to the Office of Management and Budget potentially hamstringing the DOE Secretary in the future.

The Nuclear Weapons Council is made up of DOD and NNSA and hence could potentially give NNSA the ability to cut EM funding without input from the DOE Secretary. The NWC could require the DOE Secretary to increase the NNSA budget, which would likely decrease the EM budget since they are both the large defense budget line items.

The members of the Nuclear Weapons Council are the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD(A&S)); Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (VCJCS); Under Secretary for Nuclear Security of the DOE and NNSA Administrator; Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (USD(P)); Under Secretary for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)), and Commander, U.S. Strategic Command (CDRUSSTRATCOM).

The Senate's NDAA bill text is available here and the bill report is available here.