U.S. Rep. Tom Udall voted on Wednesday against funding cuts for Los Alamos National Laboratory, a move that earned him criticism because he said last year, in voting for cuts at the lab, that LANL needs to shift its focus from nuclear weapons to alternative energy and other work.
The Democratic congressman’s opponent in the U.S. Senate race, Republican Steve Pearce, criticized Udall in a news release, saying Udall’s “flip flop” is another example of his “election-year transformation.”
“It is, of course, good to know that he has changed his position and now supports what I have been supporting for many years,” Pearce said. “But it is shocking to recognize that he voted for the same exact cuts just last year.”
Udall refused an interview request from the Albuquerque Journal but put out a statement explaining his vote. In it, he said he remains committed to shifting the mission of the labs.
“And although this legislation contains many good provisions, it does not provide a path to the future for our national laboratories, and I could not support it,” Udall said. “This bill not only cuts critical programs that are essential to the strength of our labs and the security of our nation, it rescinds funding that LANL and Sandia have already been promised and have budgeted for the current fiscal year.”
It was the House Appropriations Committee that voted to shut down a billion-dollar plutonium manufacturing program at LANL on Wednesday. According to the Journal, the committee decided that the W88 nuclear warhead, a
The office of U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said the bill would cut $300 million from LANL’s budget and $60 million from the nuclear weapons budget for Sandia National Laboratories.
Udall’s statement didn’t directly address the W88 pit-production program, and Udall spokesman Sam Simon told the New Mexico Independent that Udall is “not weighing in right now on the exact number of pits that need to be produced at the lab.” He said Udall “wants fewer nuclear weapons” and “has repeatedly called for a broader mission for LANL that helps it grow in other new areas.”
“But we won’t reach our goals by slashing LANL without a plan in place to ensure that the labs remain a critical part of our national security as they have for decades,” Simon said.
‘Only the beginning’
In his statement, Udall said this is “only the beginning of the budgetary process for our labs.”
“Like last year, I will work with my colleagues in the House and the Senate to make sure the final budget Congress produces protects our laboratories and ensures that the national security threats of today and of tomorrow are effectively addressed,” he said.
That didn’t appease lab critics.
“Udall’s lack of support for today’s bill signals a disconnect between his actions in Congress and the impression he has left with many constituents,” Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group told the Independent. “Mr. Udall says he wants change, but his vote today was a straight-up expression of the old Cold-War nuclear weapons pork-barrel system. If Mr. Udall really wants LANL to change he has to vote for it when he has the chance, not just express a vague hope that such-and-such will happen in the future.”
Domenici, on the other hand, blasted the House Appropriations Committee’s vote in a news release.
“This bill is worse than the status quo. Pit production is necessary and I do not know of a single acceptable argument for the
Domenici said he agrees with investing more in other science research but not at the expense of nuclear weapons research. He said the bill Udall voted against “does not do enough to invest in more science and research. Cuts to supercomputing, for instance, are inconsistent with my vision of broadening our national laboratories’ missions to support both national security and science.”
Update, 5:10 p.m.
The Democratic Party of New Mexico pointed out in a news release that Pearce voted four times last year “to cripple the Department of Energy budget.” It was an issue on which Heather Wilson hit Pearce repeatedly in the GOP Senate primary.
“Steve Pearce voted to cut $1 billion and slash jobs at