Clinton undercuts plan for independent nuclear agency

President Clinton has thrown a monkey wrench into congressional plans to create a semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration at the Department of Energy by ordering Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to act as director of the new agency.

The original plan, heavily debated in Congress, called for the NNSA to be led by an undersecretary of Energy with broad authority over all activities related to nuclear weapons, including security, policy, budgeting and counterintelligence.

Richardson was to have responsibility for establishing policy for the NNSA, and the new leader would be subject to his direction. Republican leaders insisted that the new agency remain separate, but Richardson consistently opposed the idea of a semi-autonomous agency within his department.

The new leadership arrangement does an end run around a measure drafted by House-Senate conferees to give autonomy to the new agency. Clinton's announcement came on Tuesday as he signed the fiscal 2000 defense authorization bill, the Washington Post reported.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Wednesday, Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M., called Clinton's move "an absolute frontal attack," The Post reported. Domenici played a leading role in drafting the agency plan.

Clinton said he would hold off on appointing a undersecretary for nuclear security until Congress corrected "deficiencies" in the plan to reorganize the nuclear wespons complex. Richardson told the Senate panel that he hoped Congress would use the fiscal 2000 intelligence authorization bill, which is still under debate, to modify the plan.