Posted on 03/01/2009 4:45:22 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
I'd been trying unsuccessfully, in recent weeks, to catch up with Congressman Zach Wamp to see what he thought of the Obama administration's apparent push to move the Nuclear Weapons Complex out of the Dept.of Energy and over to the Dept. of Defense. Few members of Congress are more intimately knowledgeable of the nuclear weapons program than Wamp, and he's been a big supporter, in part because of the Y-12 warhead plant in his home district.
On Friday, at an event at Y-12's New Hope Center, I had a few minutes to talk with Wamp, and I asked him for his position on relocating the weapons program to DOD. "Well, that is the $64,000 question right now," he said.
Wamp said the idea is not necessarily something that Oak Ridge should be scared about at this point, but he said he's anxious to hear more about what the intentions and motivations are for the possible change of oversight and management of the U.S. nuclear weapons enterprise.
The eight-term Republican congressman said a lot of the answers should come this week when Energy Secretary Steven Chu appears before the Appropriations energy and water subcommittee. "We plan to begin the process (Wednesday) of asking the questions about this. Because you have to, I think, find what are the motives.
"I understand that the new Dept. of Energy is really going to focus on renwable energy, energy efficiency, altenative energy. Energy research is certainly going to be a big priority, and that certainly is going to help the Oak Ridge National Laboratory because we can do it, and we are really positioned well to help our country as we go into this new paradigm.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.knoxnews.com ...
And when Dept of Energy is moved to Def Department, Obama can compare the defense budgets and show growth!
And when we move Dept of Energy to Dept of Defense, Obama will be able to show growth in Defense spending.... Probably will move Veterans Adminstration there too.
I really don’t have a problem with putting the VA back in Defense. Having a cabinet level Secretary was a nice gesture back when Reagan was President, but I doubt Obama’s going to pay much attention to him now. Combining the VA Health Care System with TRICARE and CHAMPVA can’t possibly be any worse than the way things are now (CHAMPVA especially). And it would ease considerably the transition from active duty to veteran status, especially for the disabled.
The budget jiggery-pokery is going to be annoying, but like it or not Barry the Bastard is in charge for now, and he’s going to take whatever benefit he can. Might as well get what we can out of it.
Fixed.
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