The National Security missions of the NNSA are vital to the interests of our country and not only to the nuclear weapons program but also to the nuclear navy and nuclear nonproliferation.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and what a great pleasure it will be to serve on this subcommittee with you as Chair. I appreciate the great leadership that you provide. I look forward to working with all of our Members, including on my side of the aisle, Congressman Visclosky, who did such a great job in leading efforts in the past and who has enormous responsibilities now as the ranking on our defense subcommittee.
It's great to see everyone here this morning. And to all the Members, let me just say historically for a woman to rise even to ranking on this or any subcommittee still makes history by some accounts. And so, in assuming this position today, I particularly want to place it the record the name of Congresswoman Lindy Boggs who, when I first arrived in Congress and ultimately after a decade gained a position on the Appropriations Committee, was the only woman on my side of the aisle. She let me sit right next to her and it was she who taught me that when we are in full session in the Appropriations Committee that I had to stand up - that we were different than the other committees - and I learned so much from her and I want to especially remember her service to our country this morning.
I would also like to add my welcome, Mr. Chairman, to Administrator Miller, to Dr. Cook and to Colonel Dawkins and thank you all for your great service to our country and thank you very much for the special briefing that you provided to us yesterday.
The National Security missions of the NNSA are vital to the interests of our country and not only to the nuclear weapons program but also to the nuclear navy and the nuclear nonproliferation mission we will hear about later in the month.
While the issues we are discussing today are profound, they also involve considerable sums of money. I am reflecting on what the President has said about running a government that is smarter and not necessarily bigger. I was very interested that in the State of the Union the President devoted almost two paragraphs to the issue of nuclear weapons. I will just reference for the record some of his words; that we will do what is necessary to prevent countries that have ill intentions from getting a nuclear weapon and at the same time we will engage Russia to seek further reductions in our nuclear arsenals and continue leading the global effort to secure nuclear materials that could fall into the wrong hands, because our ability to influence others depends on our willingness to lead.
Our responsibility is to ensure that the dollars provided by the American taxpayer for the weapons complex are spent pursuant to a coherent strategy and as wisely as possible. I want to make clear to you there is nothing I take more seriously, and I know my colleagues agree, in my role as a Member of Congress than issues surrounding decisions regarding war and peace in general and nuclear weapons in particular.
While I am new to this subcommittee, I have served on the Defense Subcommittee with Chairman Frelinghuysen for eight years and recognize there are complex issues related to NNSA's mission. But, I would like to raise just two concerns with you today, in particular.
The first is how we ensure our facilities are secure. The incident at Y-12 where three anti-nuclear protestors, including an 82 year-old nun, were able to breach the Y-12 site's high security perimeter and reach the highly enriched uranium materials facility exposed exasperatingly systemic flaws to the NNSA's approach to securing these critical facilities.
The second issue I will raise today is the repeated and spectacular cost increases that seem to plague the NNSA. From the B-61 life extension program to the uranium processing facility, the NNSA seems to have a difficult time meeting cost and schedule targets. This is difficult for us and unacceptable in any fiscal environment. It is particularly alarming in the context of the Budget Control Act and the very difficult choices we all face because of the discretionary spending caps set in place through 2022.
In an era of declining budgets, we simply cannot afford large cost overruns in any program, much less one so important to our national security.
I look forward to hearing your testimony and Mr. Chairman.
I thank you very much for the time.
Source: U.S. Department of HCA
