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Trump and NNSA

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By scooby
  1. Will Trump move NNSA to the DOD? Why not?

  2. Because he doesn't care or know anything about nuclear weapons, and has proven he isn't interested in learning anything about anything.

  3. He will have to try very very hard to care less than Obama.
  4. He doesn't have authority to move NNSA, only Congress can restructure Cabinet agencies. And the Energy Committees (R or D lead, doesn't matter) in the House and Senate are not about to give up a huge portion of their portfolio and move it to other Committees (Armed Serves) that oversee DOD.
  5. He doesn't have authority to move NNSA,
    January 16, 2017 at 8:11 AM

    But, "When you're a star, you can do anything!"

Comments

Anonymous said…
But, "When you're a star, you can do anything!"

But when you are president and your party controls all three branches of government (pending Alito replacement confirmation), "you can do anything!"

Get ready for your hope and change! It is coming 8 years late :)
1/16/2017 11:44 AM
Anonymous said…
I think it is a good move, because NNSA is about weapons and stockpile stewardship, driven ultimately by enduring military needs. That fits Defense, but not the current version of Energy, which is support for big-science research (put that somewhere else, maybe Education) a mixed bag of Obamaisms that support alternative energy (Trump will kill these), and real energy production including nuclear power (refocus Energy on these things only). That or create a new Department with a cabinet-level head, "Department of Nuclear Weapons and Stockpile Stewardship" or something.
1/16/2017 12:06 PM
Anonymous said…
But, "When you're a star, you can do anything!"

Trump

But. "I failed to get in the sheets with her, I admit, I failed!"

Trump
1/16/2017 2:15 PM
Anonymous said…
January 16, 2017 at 11:44 AM

I think you meant "Scalia." Alito isn't going anywhere.
1/16/2017 5:25 PM
Anonymous said…
create a new Department with a cabinet-level head, "Department of Nuclear Weapons and Stockpile Stewardship" or something.

January 16, 2017 at 12:06 PM

Um, like "Atomic Energy Commission"?
1/16/2017 5:26 PM
Anonymous said…
No, AEC was a rogue commission that had much broader responsibilities. Leave nuclear power to DOE, and separate out nuclear weapons and related R&D, which is NNSA.
1/16/2017 6:06 PM
Anonymous said…
Can't rise to the level of a cabinet department. Maybe a commission or agency like NRC. You have to realize that pretty much no one in elected government gives a damn about nuclear weapons.
1/16/2017 6:44 PM
Anonymous said…
January 16, 2017 at 6:44 PML

Nukes? Is that like rotary phones, vacuum tubes and telephone books? Can't remember the last time we used one..oh yeah, 1945, over 70 years ago! Har har har!
1/16/2017 7:25 PM
Anonymous said…
Klotz was a last desperate attempt by DoE to retain NNSA, and with the new administration, he is history. Good riddance!!
1/17/2017 11:08 AM
Anonymous said…
"Can't rise to the level of a cabinet department. Maybe a commission or agency like NRC. You have to realize that pretty much no one in elected government gives a damn about nuclear weapons."

That's the answer. No one cares enough at this point to go to the effort of drafting actual legislation to reorganize DOE, so it just drifts along.
1/18/2017 5:29 PM
Anonymous said…
7:25 ... Can't remember the last time we used one..oh yeah, 1945, over 70 years ago! Har har har!

Uhhm, no. We use them every day. Maybe you like that, maybe you don't, maybe you wish mankind wasn't such that nuclear deterrence became a fact, but a fact it is.
1/19/2017 6:42 AM
Anonymous said…
January 19, 2017 at 6:42 AM

Don't bother trying to explain facts to people like January 16, 2017 at 7:25 PM, who have already demonstrated they don't have the capacity to understand.
1/19/2017 8:05 AM
Anonymous said…
The NNSA weapon labs are going to be moved under the wings of the DOD.

Not saying it's the right thing or it's good but the mentality of the incoming Trump administration makes me think it's going to happen and it will happen quickly. Lots of things in our government structures are about to be shaken up in ways we having seen for many decades.


1/19/2017 8:33 AM
Anonymous said…
6:06PM "No, AEC was a rogue commission ..."

Serious question-how was the AEC "rogue"? Did it split off from the non-rogue agency that previously managed nuclear weapon R&D? Or they didn't follow federal contracting guidelines for acquisition of a nuclear stockpile? Or they were just scoundrels and villains (Lilienthal and Strauss and Seaborg, et al)?
1/19/2017 2:01 PM
Anonymous said…
The NNSA weapon labs are going to be moved under the wings of the DOD.

January 19, 2017 at 8:33 AM

Nope. Now that Perry understands the extent of his responsibilities, and authorities, he will not willingly give them up. Neither Trump, nor anyone under him, cares about nuclear weapons. The issue of moving to DoD will never even come up. Mattis will reject it if it does. Get real.
1/19/2017 5:14 PM
Anonymous said…
Serious question-how was the AEC "rogue"?

January 19, 2017 at 2:01 PM

Human radiation experiments with unknowing subjects, for one.
1/19/2017 6:49 PM
Anonymous said…
Applying current cultural standards to actions taken 60 years ago, at the height of the cold war and fears of nuclear attack, is short-sighted, historically ignorant, and condescending. Implying that the people studying the effects could have informed the study participants what the outcomes might be is just scientifically and historically wrong.
1/19/2017 8:07 PM
Anonymous said…
It was not 60 years ago at the height of the cold war, those "experiments" continued into the 1970's. You might pull your nose out of your ass and rethink your highfalutin sermon, and maybe read the history of those "experiments".
1/19/2017 8:29 PM
Anonymous said…
Let's frame it this way. Who is the stronger personality and will have more of Trump's ear: The Secretary of Energy or the Secretary of Defense. If Mattis wants it, Mattis will get it.
1/20/2017 11:34 AM
Anonymous said…
Trump and the GOP have made it clear that very severe cuts are coming to the discretionary budget under his administration. The DOE has been singled out for especially deep cuts. I wouldn't want to be working anywhere near the DOE for the next 4 to 8 years.

Conversely, much like with the Reagan era, the people working under the DOD are going to get everything they ask for and more. It is a much safer place to be. Jus' saying.
1/20/2017 2:45 PM
Anonymous said…
NNSA is semi-autonomous, and headed by a political appointee. Defense Programs is also headed by a political appointee. Meanwhile, Trump has supported expansion of nuclear capabilities, and may support it more when he knows more, "https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/us/politics/trump-says-us-should-expand-its-nuclear-capability.html I don't think NNSA is in a lot of trouble no matter where it resides, though the rest of DOE may be in trouble. Congress will have the last word, as every President eventually learns.
1/20/2017 4:38 PM
Anonymous said…
Congress will have the last word, as every President eventually learns.

January 20, 2017 at 4:38 PM

Obama broke that mold, doing everything he wanted by EO. But, live by the pen, die by the pen.
1/21/2017 6:52 PM
Anonymous said…
Go visit a DoD lab, and see "labs" built in unheated 1950s cinderblock buildings, and then tell me NNSA should be run by DoD.
1/22/2017 10:54 PM
Anonymous said…
January 22, 2017 at 10:54 PM

I take it you've never been to Lincoln Lab.
1/24/2017 5:20 AM
Anonymous said…


January 22, 2017 at 10:54 PM


What's your point? If you intend to claim that NNSA has been able to provide state-of-the-art laboratory facilities for all the scientists that work here, you haven't been around much.
1/25/2017 2:12 PM
Anonymous said…
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Go visit a DoD lab, and see "labs" built in unheated 1950s cinderblock buildings, and then tell me NNSA should be run by DoD.

January 22, 2017 at 10:54 PM


That is half of LANL..... No different.
1/28/2017 1:49 PM
Anonymous said…
True dat.
1/28/2017 2:21 PM
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