Hearing Of The Subcommittee On Energy And Water Development Of The House Committee On Appropriations - Fy2011 Budget For DOE Nuclear Nonproliferation

Statement

Good afternoon. We have before us today Steven Black,
Chief Operating Officer for the Office of Defense Nuclear
Nonproliferation. He will be presenting the President's fiscal year
2011 budget request for the Office of Defense Nuclear
Nonproliferation.
The President committed to an aggressive nonproliferation
agenda in his first year in office. He pledged to secure all
vulnerable nuclear materials worldwide in four years; accelerate
the reduction of Russian and U.S. nuclear weapons stockpiles
through a new agreement; and is seeking to update the agreement
for Russia to dispose of its surplus weapons-grade plutonium.
The fiscal year 2011 request supports these commitments
with a proposed $2.7 billion, $550 million above fiscal year 2010.
Securing vulnerable nuclear material is a laudable goal, a
goal this Committee supports. However, the magnitude of the
increase -- 26% -- raises concerns whether the increase can be
effectively executed in a single year. Significant portions of the
program depend on finalizing agreements with other nations,
something that is notoriously difficult to firmly nail down in time.
There may be justification to fund activities that are
uncertain, but over-promising on execution risks skepticism toward
this request and planned future funding increases. The program has
made significant progress in reducing carryover in the last several
years; we will continue to expect you to meet your commitments to
the public. We are interested in hearing the details on how you
believe you can execute this funding and your defense of the
choices made in the nonproliferation request.
Mr. Black, your full written testimony will be entered into
the record. After the hearing, we may have some questions for you
to answer for the record -- and I ask that you have the responses,
and any supporting information requested by the Subcommittee be
delivered in final form to the Subcommittee no later than four
weeks from today.

I also ask that if Members have additional questions they
would like to submit for the record, that they please do so to this
Subcommittee by 5:00 PM tomorrow.
With those opening comments, I would like to yield to our
ranking member, Mr. Frelinghuysen, for any opening comments
that he would like to make.

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