<h2>Director testifies before Subcommittee on Military Procurement</h2>
<B><I>Editor's note: The following are Director Sig Hecker's opening remarks Wednesday before the House National Security Committee, Subcommittee on Military Procurement. This is the annual budget hearing for the Department of Energy's defense activities. Others testifying were Charles Curtis, under secretary of energy; Harold Smith, assistant to the secretary of defense for atomic energy; Kenneth Baker, acting director of DOE's Office of Nonproliferation and National Security; Bruce Tarter, director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; and Al Narath, director of Sandia National Laboratories. This is the primary Congressional committee hearing in the House of Representatives on Laboratory funding. The full text of Hecker's testimony is available at the Research Library's reference desk and electronically through the Lab's Internet home page.</b></i><p>
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to testify before this committee. Los Alamos takes very seriously its role in both defense and in science and technology for the future of our nation, and we stand ready to work with this committee to ensure United States leadership in both of these areas. There are four points that I would like to make.<p>
1) Our nuclear weapons role has changed but not diminished -- Los Alamos' focus is on helping to reduce the global nuclear danger. Jointly with the Department of Energy, we are well on our way toward planning a rational post-Cold War nuclear weapons program that will provide for a safe, secure and reliable nuclear deterrent in the absence of nuclear testing. This will include a transition from a system based on the large capacities of the nuclear weapons production complex of the past to one that relies heavily on the capabilities resident in the DOE defense laboratories. Similarly, we are beginning to tackle the hard problems of how to contain the proliferation of nuclear weapons and how to deal with the legacy of nuclear materials, nuclear waste and environmental cleanup.<p>
2) The fiscal year 1996 budget at the laboratories is crucial to retaining the competencies and ability to accomplish this transition. While the president's fiscal year 1996 budget does arrest the drop in weapons-program funding, we are not investing in maintaining the key facilities at Los Alamos that the nation is increasingly relying upon for a safe, secure, reliable and affordable stockpile for the future. The escalation costs of our operations, especially our nuclear facilities, are draining our programmatic funds to the point where we will not be able to stem the loss of crucial talent.<p>
3) We desperately need the management and oversight changes called for in Appendix B of the Galvin report. These changes would restore the intent of the government-owned, contractor-operated system that has been eroded by incremental increases in oversight. The changes will be instrumental in allowing us to control the skyrocketing costs of our facilities and operations. We are encouraged by the steps the department has taken to date to initiate the changes called for in Appendix B of the report.<p>
4) Today, nonnuclear defense research and civilian basic research and technology done in partnership with universities and industry are crucial to our nuclear defense mission. Selected programs allow us to use our core technical competencies in the broader national interest, help to leverage the nuclear weapons funding and help to provide a stimulating research environment that allows us to attract and retain world-class research talent to serve the nation.<p>
<B><I>Director's postscript: There was much support for the continued importance of nuclear weapons, particularly what we are doing to maintain confidence in the safety, security and reliability of the weapons in the absence of nuclear testing. There was broad recognition that we will need to retain and attract outstanding, experienced people in the nuclear weapons program. All around, the committee was very supportive of the laboratories and our role in the future of the security of our country.</b></i><P>