DOE - NNSA

During  House consideration of H.R. 5325, the Energy and Water Development  Appropriations Act for FY 2013, an amendment was offered to increase the appropriation  for the Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation account.  This account provides funding for Nonproliferation  and Verification Research and Development, Nonproliferation and International  Security, International Nuclear Material Protection and Cooperation, Fissile  Materials Disposition, and the Global Threat Reduction Initiative.  The current budget is $2,295.9 million.  The Administration requested $2,458.6  million. 

Late  last week the House of Representatives started its consideration of the FY 2013  Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill.  It is expected that the final vote on passage  will occur later this week.

House  and Senate appropriators have completed work on the FY 2013 Energy and Water  Development Appropriations Bill.  The House   and  Senate   reports contain approximately 57 pages of funding and policy recommendations  for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).   Language  within each report stands, unless there is a conflict that will be resolved in  the final conference report.  This final  conference report

National  Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator Thomas D’Agostino had been  testifying for only a few minutes when he spoke of the austere budget  environment as creating what he called a “burning platform” to “dramatically change  the way we do business.” 

“Keeping  Americans safe by enhancing nuclear security through defense, nonproliferation  and environmental cleanup” is the one of three priorities in the FY 2013  Department of Energy request sent to Congress on Monday.  The department is requesting $27,155.1  million, an increase of 3.2 percent or $855.5 million for the new fiscal  year.  Of that, $11,535.9 million would  be allocated to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

Congress  and the President have agreed on a final FY 2012 appropriations bill.  H.R.

The  Senate Appropriations Committee has approved its version of the FY 2012 Energy  and Water Development Appropriations Bill.   Senate Report 112-75  accompanies  H.R. 2354 and provides the committee’s funding and policy recommendations of  subcommittee chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and her colleagues.  This FYI excerpts selections from the 15  pages in this report pertaining to the National Nuclear Security Administration  (NNSA). Readers are urged to consult the report for all of the language  regarding a particular program.

The  Administration has requested a 5.1 percent or $568.2 million increase for the  National Nuclear Security Administration for FY 2012.  Under this request, funding would increase  from the FY 2011 Administration request of $11,214.8 million to $11,782.9  million. 

An  FY 2011 appropriation bill has not been passed for the NNSA.  However, the Department of Energy has based  its comparisons on the FY 2011 request, and not on the FY 2010 appropriation.

The following is additional material from the recently released Senate Appropriations Committee report accompanying the FY 2011 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act. See FYI #79 for funding and program recommendations for the Office of Science.

OFFICE OF SCIENCE - JOINT DARK ENERGY MISSION:

The final version of Senate Appropriations Committee Report 111-228 added this sentence to the Office of Science language under High Energy Physics: