Adjusting to a new administration

LLNL NewsLine - 02/09/2017

Since the founding of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1952, a dozen presidential administrations have come and gone. Each transition came with questions about program shifts and funding impacts. While each administration has set its own priorities, the Laboratory's core mission -- to apply cutting-edge science and technology to make the nation and world safer and more secure -- has stayed the same.

Lawrence Livermore was created as the "new ideas" Lab, a multidisciplinary institution working at the cutting-edge to respond to the world's greatest challenges. Over the past six decades, our approach to innovation has served the nation exceptionally well. We changed the paradigm for nuclear weapons design with the Polaris missile; invented stockpile stewardship to assure the safety, security and reliability of the nuclear deterrent without testing; helped stem proliferation and respond to terrorist threats around the world; and, with our colleagues at Los Alamos and Berkeley Lab, initiated the human genome project.

Change is inevitable when any new administration takes over. Since the inauguration, a federal hiring freeze has been ordered; an immigration ban has been implemented, amended and litigated; and a new Nuclear Posture Review has commenced. As we learn more about these and other developments, and their impacts on the Lab, we will be sharing them with you. So far, it's clear that the hiring freeze does not affect the Lab, since we are not federal employees. We've been carefully tracking the immigration ban, and closely monitoring its immediate and potential impacts on employees and visitors. Our Immigration Services Office in the Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM) Organization is a resource available to staff with questions. Through the Center for Global Security Research, and in other forums, we maintain tight connections to the nuclear policy community.

In addition, the government continues to operate under a continuing resolution (CR) enacted last December, expiring April 28. In other words, FY17 budgets have not yet been established. New budget priorities under consideration by the administration and Congress could impact funding in the current fiscal year through either a follow-on CR or an omnibus appropriation. Also in play is the federal debt limit, which will have to be increased or suspended by March 15, though the Treasury Department has a variety of means available to temporarily finance the government. The Lab will continue to operate in the event of a lapse in appropriations associated with either the CR or the debt limit, since our programs have healthy carry-over funding. On the whole, I expect budget impacts to the Lab this year to be minimal, despite these uncertainties.

Above all, it is important that we continue our important work through this period of change with a commitment to excellence and integrity, safety and security, that are the hallmarks of our Lab.

- Lab Director Bill Goldstein