§492a Biennial Report on the Plan for the Nuclear Weapons Stockpile, Nuclear Weapons Complex, Nuclear Weapons Delivery Systems, and Nuclear Weapons Command and Control System

Summary

The President, working with the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Energy, must send a detailed report to the congressional defense committees and the congressional foreign affairs committees within 30 days after the President’s budget is sent to Congress for each odd-numbered fiscal year from 2013 through 2029. The report must explain plans for the nuclear weapons stockpile, the labs and plants that make and maintain those weapons, the delivery systems that carry them, and the command and control systems. It must describe steps to improve safety, security, and reliability; plans to sustain and modernize facilities and the workforce; plans to maintain, modernize, or replace delivery systems; any plans to retire or dismantle warheads, delivery systems, or their platforms; a detailed 10-year budget estimate for these plans (including procurement, military construction, operation and maintenance, and research, development, test, and evaluation accounts) with the cost method explained; and what was done or what problems came up since the last report. If the Defense and Energy Secretaries think the report will be late, they must tell the committees before the budget is sent and give a briefing within 30 days after the budget; the President’s report cannot be sent later than 60 days after the budget. When the President sends that report, the Director of the Congressional Budget Office must, by July 1, give a 10-year cost estimate for keeping current nuclear forces and for any planned life extensions, modernizations, or replacements, and show how those costs compare to total defense and acquisition spending. The Comptroller General must periodically check the President’s reports for accuracy on costs and methods and send summaries to the defense committees. The Commander of U.S. Strategic Command must finish an independent assessment of how modernization programs affect operations within 150 days after the budget is sent. That assessment must look at the design and production infrastructure, the stockpile, delivery systems, and command and control. The Commander must send the assessment to the Chairman of the Nuclear Weapons Council within 15 days and tell the defense committees it was sent; the Chairman must then send the assessment, unchanged, to the defense committees within 15 days.