Abraham also said that the latest security failure "reinforced the government’s decision to consider new lab contractors." Earlier this year, the department announced its intention to open the Los Alamos contract to bidders. The University of California has held the contract, said to be worth two billion dollars, since the lab’s founding in 1942.
While Bill Richardson may have been tuned into Nick at Nite, Abraham has been doing something about problem. He made the announcement that the contract would be opened for competing bids last April. UC's contract runs thru September 2005.
Too little too late.
While Abraham has fiddled and played CYA back in April, security in the meantime was obviously lax.
Why hadn't the "concerned" Abraham launched any personnel investigations, or battened down the hatches prior to the latest fiasco? Or was he simply waiting until the year 2005 when the safe would completely be cleaned out?