{"id":32953,"date":"2020-03-04T00:58:57","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T00:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/03\/04\/the-white-house-gave-this-nuclear-agency-a-giant-funding-increase-can-it-spend-it-all\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:21:16","slug":"the-white-house-gave-this-nuclear-agency-a-giant-funding-increase-can-it-spend-it-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/congress\/budget\/2020\/03\/04\/the-white-house-gave-this-nuclear-agency-a-giant-funding-increase-can-it-spend-it-all\/","title":{"rendered":"The White House gave this nuclear agency a giant funding increase. Can it spend it all?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-smg-jwplayer-video\"><atype-video-jwplayer nostick=\"true\" playlisturl=\"https:\/\/cdn.jwplayer.com\/v2\/playlists\/fCzRqMW8?tags=ab80c461-6f99-48be-90c1-95af734f8209\" poster=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/video-poster-ab80c461-6f99-48be-90c1-95af734f8209.jpg\" aspectratio=\"16 \/ 9\" mute autostart=\"false\"><\/atype-video-jwplayer><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">At the Reagan National Defense Forum, Aaron Mehta gets an update on the NNSA&#8217;s work to modernize America&#8217;s nuclear stockpile.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Members of Congress used a hearing Tuesday to question whether the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semiautonomous arm of the Department of Energy that handles development of nuclear warheads, can spend an almost 20 percent funding increase <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2020\/01\/23\/in-nuclear-spending-fight-its-trump-allies-vs-white-house-budget-office\/\" target=\"_blank\">requested by the Trump administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As part of its national security budget request, the White House asked for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/federal-budget\/2020\/02\/10\/trump-budget-requests-46-billion-for-nuclear-weapons-programs\/\" target=_blank>more than $46 billion<\/a> for nuclear programs in fiscal 2021. That includes $28.9 billion for the Department of Defense, which develops the delivery systems such as the B-21 bomber and the new replacement for intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as $15.6 billion for NNSA\u2019s nuclear weapons accounts and another $1.7 billion for nuclear reactor work, run through the NNSA on behalf of the Navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That NNSA total represents a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2020\/02\/16\/energy-secretary-dan-brouillette-talks-arms-control-nuclear-budget-boost-and-iranian-cyber-attacks\/\" target=_blank>major increase<\/a> in agency weapons funding over levels projected in the previous budget request, something that several members noted during an appearance by NNSA head <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/outlook\/2019\/12\/02\/nnsa-administrator-the-us-and-nuclear-threat-reduction\/\" target=_blank>Lisa Gordon-Hagerty<\/a> at the House Armed Services Committee\u2019s Strategic Forces Subcommittee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gordon-Hagerty defended the need for the funds, saying, \u201cWe have very limited margin for error\u201d to keep both the warhead modernization efforts and the development of plutonium pit production capabilities on track. She described the funding as \u201crequirements-based\u201d and the result of consultations within the NNSA and DoD partners, and she expressed confidence that the money would be put to good use.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/nuclear-arsenal\/2020\/02\/28\/stratcom-head-warns-us-near-nuclear-point-of-no-return\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"203\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Pennsylvania-sub.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Strategic Command boss warns of nuclear \u2018point of no return\u2019<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Pentagon alone plans to spend more than $87 billion on nuclear programs in the next five years.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A different view was painted by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nukeoversight\/status\/1234932070562050048\" target=_blank>Allison Bawden<\/a>, director of the natural resources and environment team within the Government Accountability Office, who also appeared before the committee. Bawden warned that the \u201cspend rate has to go up very quickly\u201d for NNSA to be able to spend all the money coming its way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked directly by Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., if NNSA could successfully execute a roughly $3 billion increase from its FY20 to FY21 request, Bawden said it would be \u201cvery challenging\u201d to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Expect agency officials to face similar questions about how to spend its money on Wednesday, when they appear in front of the House Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, the appropriations panel with the most direct control of the NNSA\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The chairwoman of that subcommittee, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, told Defense News this week that the administration is \u201cagain proposing a nuclear weapons budget that does not establish clear priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe proposed $3.1 billion increase for weapons is simply sprinting toward failure, and Congress should right-size NNSA\u2019s workload to match what the complex can realistically do,\u201d Kaptur said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For comparison, here are the five-year projections for NNSA\u2019s weapons activities listed in the FY21 request, versus what was projected in the FY20 request:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><b>FY21:<\/b> $15.6 billion for weapons activities, up from $12.8 billion projected in FY20.<\/li><li><b>FY22:<\/b> $15.94 billion for weapons activities, up from $13 billion projected in FY20.<\/li><li><b>FY23:<\/b> $16.27 billion for weapons activities, up from $13.1 billion projected in FY20.<\/li><li><b>FY24:<\/b> $16.6 billion for weapons activities, up from $13.4 projected in FY20.<\/li><li><b>FY25:<\/b> $16.96 billion for weapons activities, up from $13.5 billion projected in FY20.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All told, that equals an estimated $81.37 billion to be spent on nuclear weapons programs, including modernization of a number of warheads. Combined with the Pentagon\u2019s plan to spend about $87 billion over that same time frame on nuclear modernization, the overall price tag for the Future Years Defense Program could be at least $163 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stephen Young, an expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that the nuclear \u201cbow wave\u201d of spending that has long been predicted is finally arriving. But he agrees that the NNSA is likely to be challenged in spending its significant increase in dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe problem is, the NNSA will almost certainly fail to achieve its admittedly aggressive timelines, even though it is throwing money at the problem. If the United States does not have an achievable, realistic warhead plan, the Pentagon will face difficult choices going forward,\u201d Young said. \u201cThe good news is, because the U.S. nuclear arsenal is so robust, even if the NNSA has significant failures, the U.S. deterrent will remain robust.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the next five years, the NNSA and the DoD project to spend $163 billion on modernization and upkeep of America&#8217;s nuclear forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":83386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[65,106,31,15,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3277],"class_list":["post-32953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-budget","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-management","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QHKOFLIWARFLTCH2WZUYEUWCGQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/smr\/nuclear-arsenal\/2020\/03\/04\/the-white-house-gave-this-nuclear-agency-a-giant-funding-increase-can-it-spend-it-all\/","remove_feature_photo":true,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The White House gave this nuclear agency a giant funding increase. 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