Tauscher Picked For NNSA Governance Panel

Weapons & Complex Monitor
March 6, 2013

Tauscher Picked For NNSA Governance Panel

The Congressionally mandated National Nuclear Security Administration governance panel is beginning to take shape. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has named former California Democratic lawmaker and Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher to the 12-person panel, following on the heels of House Speaker John Boehner’s selection of former Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.).

Tauscher [now a member of the LLNS/LANS Boards of Governors] was instrumental in the creation of the NNSA during her time as the representative for California’s 10th District, and helped create the Strategic Posture Commission while she was the chair of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee. She also famously feuded with Pelosi during the early part of her career in Congress, backing Steny Hoyer instead of Pelosi for House Minority Whip in 2001, but they later mended fences.

The 12-member panel will be selected by the House and Senate Armed Services committees and leadership of the House and Senate, with each committee selecting four members and House and Senate leadership selecting two members apiece. Funded by a $3 million authorization in the Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Authorization Act, the committee was supposed to have its first meeting by March 1, but it has been slow to get going due to funding constraints under the current Continuing Resolution that prohibit the start of new programs. A new CR that would fund the Defense Department and other government agencies through the end of the year unveiled by House appropriators this week would allow the study to begin.