30 November 2004
Bush Administration May Yet Pursue New Nuclear Weapons Capabilities
By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

The administration has made no decision yet, however, on whether or not to do so, National Nuclear Security Administration spokesman Bryan Wilkes said.

In an interview following Congress’s vote on the fiscal 2005 Omnibus Appropriations bill, Wilkes described some of the options available to the NNSA, which has funded the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator and other “advanced concepts” nuclear weapons projects through the national nuclear laboratories.

Other than canceling the programs, the agency could seek permission from congressional appropriators to transfer some money from other accounts for the current fiscal year and it could try to pursue renewed funding in fiscal 2006, which begins next Oct. 1, he said.

Wilkes said though, “It’s too early to tell what we’re going to do.”

“We are disappointed that the appropriators in Congress did not follow the administration’s requests in several areas. And we’re going to have to finish collecting the information, take a look at the numbers, and as soon as we feel we have some good solid information really sit down and assess what we’re going to do down the line, for the long haul,” he said.

Funding for This Year Believed Unlikely

The omnibus bill, a massive collection of legislation appropriating money for multiple agencies, included language allowing the Energy Department to “reprogram” funding, that is, to shift money from one account to another.

The NNSA, however, first would need to obtain permission from congressional appropriators for shifts of more than $1 million and Wilkes said it would probably be difficult for the administration to persuade the committees to give that permission.

“It’s not very likely that the same people who are zeroing out certain accounts for next year are going to approve certain funds being moved there,” he said.

The funding was cancelled at the insistence of Representative Dave Hobson (R-Ohio), who chairs the key House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. Hobson has argued that the programs are destabilizing internationally.

Wilkes said the scientists who work on the programs do other work as well, so their talents would not be lost to the agency were no funding obtained for this year. In fact, about $9 million for advanced concepts was transferred in the bill to a program for designing improvements to existing nuclear weapons, he said.

Whereas national laboratories employees did “idea work” for the advanced concepts program, now they’re doing “design work on current weapons. So you still have people doing something with that money,” Wilkes said.

The administration had requested $27.6 million in appropriations for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator program and $9 million for other Advanced Concepts Initiative programs. Earlier this year, Congress had passed legislation that authorized in full that spending, but the omnibus bill following the direction of the House Appropriations Committee did not provide the money.

The bill also eliminated $30 million to shorten the preparation time to conduct a nuclear test, if ordered by the president; and all but $7 million of $29.8 million requested for constructing a new facility to build new plutonium triggers, or “pits,” for nuclear weapons.

Matt Martin, deputy director of the British American Security Information Council, wrote in a Nov. 24 press release that the battle over the programs may not be over.

“President Bush has made new and modified nuclear weapons an important piece of his plan for U.S. strategic planning, and he is not likely to give up easily on this effort,” he wrote.

“This is not winning the war by a long shot. But it is a consequential step and should send a very loud message to the administration,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) in a statement last week of the funding cuts.