{"id":3403,"date":"2008-06-26T07:21:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-26T13:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/06\/udall-votes-against-cutting-nuclear-weapons-funding\/"},"modified":"2008-06-26T07:21:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-26T13:21:00","slug":"udall-votes-against-cutting-nuclear-weapons-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/06\/udall-votes-against-cutting-nuclear-weapons-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Udall votes against cutting nuclear-weapons funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>U.S. Rep. Tom Udall<\/a> voted on Wednesday against funding cuts for Los Alamos National Laboratory<\/a>, 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. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Democratic congressman\u2019s opponent in the U.S. Senate race, Republican Steve Pearce<\/a>, criticized Udall in a news release, saying Udall\u2019s \u201cflip flop\u201d is another example of his \u201celection-year transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is, of course, good to know that he has changed his position and now supports what I have been supporting for many years,\u201d Pearce said. \u201cBut it is shocking to recognize that he voted for the same exact cuts just last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Udall refused an interview request from the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> but put out a statement<\/a> explaining his vote. In it, he said he remains committed to shifting the mission of the labs.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 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,\u201d Udall said. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It was the House Appropriations Committee<\/a> that voted to shut down a billion-dollar plutonium manufacturing program at LANL on Wednesday. According to the Journal<\/a>, the committee decided that the W88 nuclear warhead, a U.S.<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> submarine weapon that is central to LANL\u2019s plutonium program, is obsolete.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The office of U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici<\/a>, R-N.M., said the bill would cut $300 million from LANL\u2019s budget and $60 million from the nuclear weapons budget for Sandia National Laboratories<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Udall\u2019s statement didn\u2019t directly address the W88 pit-production program, and Udall spokesman Sam Simon told the New Mexico Independent<\/a> that Udall is \u201cnot weighing in right now on the exact number of pits that need to be produced at the lab.\u201d He said Udall \u201cwants fewer nuclear weapons\u201d and \u201chas repeatedly called for a broader mission for LANL that helps it grow in other new areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cBut we won\u2019t 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,\u201d Simon said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2018Only the beginning\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In his statement, Udall said this is \u201conly the beginning of the budgetary process for our labs.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cLike 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t appease lab critics.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cUdall\u2019s lack of support for today\u2019s bill signals a disconnect between his actions in Congress and the impression he has left with many constituents,\u201d Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group told the Independent. \u201cMr. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Domenici, on the other hand, blasted the House Appropriations Committee\u2019s vote in a news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill is worse than the status quo. Pit production is necessary and I do not know of a single acceptable argument for the United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> abandoning its production capacity. No other nation in the world with nuclear capabilities is standing still, which is exactly what this bill would accomplish for us,\u201d Domenici said. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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 \u201cdoes 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\u2019 missions to support both national security and science.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 5:10 p.m.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Democratic Party of New Mexico pointed out in a news release that Pearce voted four times last year \u201cto cripple the Department of Energy budget.\u201d It was an issue on which Heather Wilson<\/a> hit Pearce repeatedly in the GOP Senate primary.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cSteve Pearce voted to cut $1 billion and slash jobs at New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>\u2019s labs — just ask Heather Wilson,\u201d said Democratic Party Executive Director Josh Geise. \u201cEven she knew that Steve Pearce would fail to stand up for New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>\u2019s values or interests when it mattered most.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s opponent in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}