THE SDIO REQUESTS THAT CONGRESS CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE DOE REQUESTS TO ALLOW THE COMPLETION OF CRITICAL FEASIBILITY TESTS IN TIME TO IMPACT OUR DECISION TIME FRAME. AS PART OF THIS SUPPORT, I REQUEST THAT THE CONGRESS ASSIST US IN PROVIDING A FUNDS TRANSFER BETWEEN SDIO AND DOE TO ALLOW US TO HAVE CONSISTENT RESEARCH MILESTONES. A DISCUSSION OF THIS SPECIFIC ISSUE IS PROVIDED IN APPENDIX A. APPENDIX A RECENTLY, THE PRESIDENT TRANSMITTED A MESSAGE TO CONGRESS PROPOSING THE TRANSFER OF $62 MILLION FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY IN FISCAL YEAR 1986 TO ACCELERATE RESEARCH ON NUCLEAR DIRECTED ENERGY CONCEPTS. PURPOSE OF THE LETTER WAS TO EMPHASIZE THE URGENCY OF THIS PROPOSED ACTION, PROVIDE SUPPORTING INFORMATION, AND REQUEST YOUR ASSISTANCE IN EFFECTING THIS FUNDING TRANSFER. THE IN THE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS, OUR KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF NUCLEAR DIRECTED ENERGY TECHNOLOGY HAS ADVANCED SIGNIFICANTLY. THIS KNOWLEDGE HAS INCREASED THE IMPORTANCE OF THE NUCLEAR DIRECTED ENERGY RESEARCH TO THE NATIONAL STRATEGIC DEFENSE INITIATIVE PROGRAM. OUR NEW UNDERSTANDING IS A RESULT OF THE SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS MADE IN THE NUCLEAR DIRECTED ENERGY TECHNOLOGY AND THE RESULTS OF SDI ARCHITECTURE STUDIES WHICH SHOWED THE DRAMATIC IMPACT, ESPECIALLY IN THE THREAT AREA, THAT AN ADVERSARY'S NUCLEAR DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPON (NDEW) COULD HAVE ON NATIONAL SECURITY. IT IS VITAL THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY'S LEVEL OF EFFORT ON SDI RESEARCH BE INCREASED DURING FISCAL YEAR 1986 AND BEYOND SO THAT THE FEASIBILITY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS TECHNOLOGY, PARTICULARLY THE POTENTIAL THREAT IT POSES IF DEVELOPED BY THE SOVIETS, CAN BE PROPERLY CONSIDERED IN FUTURE STRATEGIC DEFENSE INITIATIVE PROGRAMMATIC DECISIONS. IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT THIS TECHNOLOGY BE SYNCHRONIZED WITH THE EXPECTED MATURATION OF SDI TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS. OTHERWISE, PROGRAMMATIC DECISIONS WILL BE BASED ON AN INADEQUATE UNDERSTANDING OF NUCLEAR DIRECTED ENERGY FEASIBILITY. TO KEEP PACE WITH SDI TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT, THE $62 CRITICAL SDI TECHNOLOGIES WILL BE COMING TO MATURITY. THIS TO AVOID ANY INCREASE IN THE FEDERAL DEFICIT, THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE IS MAKING $62 MILLION AVAILABLE FROM WITHIN THEIR OVERALL FISCAL YEAR 1986 SDI BUDGET OF $2,759 BILLION. I WOULD APPRECIATE YOUR PROMPT CONSIDERATION AND APPROVAL OF THE PRESIDENT'S REQUEST. That is the matter of the supplemental request-General Davis and Admiral Foley, it probably involves all of you, for SDI. General Davis, I believe in your testimony you indicated that the need to augment the DOE request for SDI-and I am talking now about the supplemental at the expense of decrementing, if that is the correct pronunciation of that word; I like that word-an already finely honed DOD request. Both Senator Stevens and I have requested a list of those activities or items within DOD that would be reduced by $62 million, the figure in the supplemental, and provide the funds for the DOE. Could you provide us with some of the detail of those activities or those reductions that would offset the $62 million? General ABRAHAMSON. Sir, all of the $62 million is within the Department of Defense SDI Program. Now, the unfortunate part that makes it difficult to respond specifically to what you have asked is the fact that we had a $1 billion reduction in the overall program last year. In absorbing this reduction, we could see that there was a need to supplement and accelerate the DOE portion of SDI-related activities. Chairman HATFIELD. Does this affect universities or laboratories, for instance? General ABRAHAMSON. Well, it affects all parts of the program. I took out a very large sum of money and it is a piece of that; I have difficulty accurately telling you about it. If I had that $62 million back, I would not put it back exactly in the original areas because by now a substantial amount of the year has expired and new priorities have evolved. I believe, from your viewpoint, that the important point is that all of the $62 million is out of the SDI Program. We have not taken it from any other Department of Defense line item. Chairman HATFIELD. As you know, under Gramm-Rudman we may be required to offset these moneys that are represented by increases in DOE. General Davis, your statement would also indicate that $4 million of the supplemental request would be used for the Strategic Defense Facility; is that correct? And is this the Sandia lab that you are talking about? General DAVIS. YES. Chairman HATFIELD. This raises two other possible problems for us. One is, as you may recall, last October the Congress and the President agreed to a level of funding to provide only $2 million in DOE fiscal year 1986 for this project. I suppose, first of all, I would have to ask why the additional money is required, and then to raise the question that in the authorization for this project by the Armed Services Committee that the additional $4 million would exceed that ceiling for fiscal year 1986. This committee, not this subcommittee, but the Appropriations Committee, and the Defense Subcommittee particularly, is always having to navigate through rocky shoals to avoid the jurisdictional questions that arise between the authorizing committee and the Defense Subcommittee on Appropriations. We are engaged, really, in sort of an informal negotiation at the moment between these two committees and this would be one of those items, I am sure, that the Armed Services Committee would be quick to point out that we on the Appropriations Committee have exceeded that ceiling that they set. That seems to be the crux of this intercommittee difficulty we are experiencing. Now, if you would like to submit this for the record, you may do so, but I raise those questions. If you would like to submit that for the record, we would appreciate it. General DAVIS. Yes, sir; that will be fine. Chairman HATFIELD. You see my point. Have I made my question clear to you? General DAVIS. Yes, sir; absolutely. [The information follows:] SDI TRANSFER The prepared testimony states that, "The DOD Strategic Defense Initiative Office has thus far provided $38 million to the DOE to reimbursably fund SDI research in direct support of DOD mission responsibilities. The $38 million supports efforts directed in DOD's mission areas. * $4 million will be used for the Strategic Defenses Facility, as required by last year's authorization language. *** The fiscal year 1986 Department of Defense Authorization Act conference report authorized $4 million to be appropriated to the Department of Energy for fiscal year 1986 for Project 86-D-104, Strategic Defenses Facility, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM. In addition,the conference report stated: "The conferees agree to authorize $8 million to begin this facility, with $4 million from amounts authorized for Department of Energy defense programs and $4 million from funds authorized for the Strategic Defense Initiative in accordance with the letter dated June 20, 1985, from the Director, Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy. The conferees expect that the $83.8 million total cost of this facility will be shared in some equitable way between the Department of Energy and the SDIO." Therefore, the $4 million provided by DOD, in addition to the $2 million appropriated by this subcommittee, does not exceed the $8 million authorization ceiling. None of the $62 million appropriation transfer would be used for the Strategic Defenses Facility. Chairman HATFIELD. Admiral Foley, could I ask you one last question. In the supplemental, you have some moneys that you are requesting for SDI-related testing, but for tests that would not occur until the fiscal year 1987 budget year. Mr. FOLEY. Yes, sir. Chairman HATFIELD. I believe you indicated that it would be difficult to add to your current testing schedule and there is a complexity about all of that. Then do I understand that the requested supplemental funding for testing would relate to personnel, equipment, and material to be used for tests in 1987? REQUIREMENT FOR SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING Mr. FOLEY. Yes, sir; it is for tests in 1987. It would be for acquiring the personnel. We have to round up the right people since they are not readily available. It would be for personnel and for some long leadtime items, for general preparation and study leading up to the test in 1987. I think it would be appropriate though, and let me make one comment on the overall supplemental request that we have made. I came into the job fully realizing the priorities of General Abrahamson. We support the SDI Program entirely, but it has to pay its own way. It doesn't come out of tech base, for example. This is a dynamic R&D program. As the General said, this looks better and we need to accelerate here and we need to do that. I support that entirely. But how do we get the money or where do we get the money to do that? We can't take it out of the R&D tech base in DOE and finance that. That is part of the reason for the supplemental. I support it 100 percent, but you have to pay for it and now you figure out a way to get the money on over to us in DOE. That is the fundamental reason. Chairman HATFIELD. Maybe he has money over there to transfer to you. General ABRAHAMSON. I always like it when the Navy is helping us. Mr. FOLEY. But only about 15 percent of the overall SDI is in the nuclear side, so it is fundamentally a nonnuclear program. Chairman HATFIELD. My rather extraordinary and well-founded comments and commendatory comments about the Navy, I do not want the Air Force or the Army to feel that we are less appreciative of the part you play in supporting the Navy in the Defense Department. [Laughter.] PREPARED QUESTIONS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD As I indicated earlier, we have a series of detailed questions for your response. |