CHAPTER SIX: NUCLEAR WEAPONS ISSUES
Nuclear Weapons Spending and Contracting

The Federal budget typically is presented to Congress in early February for the next Fiscal Year, which begins on October 1st. The Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) predominant mission is to assist the President in overseeing the preparation of the Federal budget and to supervise its administration in Executive Branch agencies. An explanation of the process is located at http://www.doc.gov/BudgetFY97/concepts.html.

OMB divides the budget into 18 Functions, one of which is National Defense. Within the National Defense function, the two largest parts are the Department of Defense and the Atomic Energy Defense Activities of the Department of Energy.

Article I of the Constitution gives Congress the authority "to declare war," "to raise and support Armies," "to provide and maintain a Navy," and "to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces." Before the Pentagon or DOE can spend any money Congress must grant it authority to carry out specific programs, and appropriate funds to pay for each authorized activity. These two activities mean that two separate pieces of legislation are required, and two committees in each body of Congress oversees the process.

The Defense Authorization Bill is the responsibility of the House National Security Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees each have 13 subcommittees corresponding to how the appropriation budget is divided. Three of these subcommittees oversee the military budget, including the DOE share: Defense/National Security, Military Construction, and Energy and Water Development. Internet resources at OMB and the Comptroller's and financial offices of the Departments of Defense and Energy track the progress of the budget. Here is where the Congressional sites really shine, particularly as bills are introduced, debated, and considered.

FinanceNet
http://www.financenet.gov/
Reputedly the U.S. government's most visited site on the Internet. The federal budget page contains links to budget resources and documents.

Federal Acquisition Jumpstation
http://www.ustreas.gov/treasury/bureaus/bep/proc/jump.html
http://procure.msfc.nasa.gov/fedproc/home.html
Extensive links to agency acquisition and business opportunities homepages.

House Law Library Budget Page
http://law.house.gov/3.htm
The gateway to budgets and related documents from FY 1994-present.

Electronic Commerce Government Information Xchange (GIX) Yellow Pages
http://www.info.gov/Info/txt_html/electronic_commerce.htm

Database of Federal Acquisition Requirements
http://www.gsa.gov/far/

Commerce Business Daily
http://cbdnet.access.gpo.gov/
Official sources of daily bid requests (RFPs) for goods and services to be purchased by the federal government, including research and development projects. Other official sites with access to the publication -- in various forms -- include http://www.sbaonline.sba.gov/hotlist/cbd.html and http://www.stat-usa.gov/BEN/subject/procure.html#cbd.

via Loren Data Corp.
http://www.ld.com/cbd/today/index.htm
via Savvy.Com
gopher://usic.savvy.com

Budgets

Budget and Appropriations Update
http://www.usbudget.com
Daily news summary and extensive links to studies, tables and Capitol Hill gossip regarding various aspects of the budget.

Daily Budget News (from OMB Watch)
http://www.RTK.NET:80/www/ombw/budget/budnews.html

Budget Bulletin
http://www.senate.gov/~budget/republican
Weekly newsletter of the Senate Budget Committee focusing on the federal budget and monitor of the Federal debt.

Defense Appropriations (FY 1998)
http://www.usbudget.com/defense.htm
Bill Texts, Legislative History, Floor Action, Committee Report Texts, Subcommittee Markup, Amendment-by-amendment summary, and Line Item detail.

DOD FY 1997 Defense Appropriations Bill
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d104:hr3610
Bill Text, Legislative History, Floor Action, and Line Item detail for HR3610/S1894, with links to documents online.

DOE FY 1998 Budget Request
http://www.cfo.doe.gov/budget/98budget.htm
As submitted to Congress on 6 February 1997.

DOE FY 1997 Budget Highlights
http://www.doe.gov/html/budget/budlite.html

DOE FY 1997 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill
http://www.usbudget.com/energyan.htm
Bill Text, Legislative History, Floor Action, and Line Item detail for HR3815/S1959, with links to document online.

The International Affairs Budget
http://www.state.gov/www/budget/budpage.html
Department of State homepage dealing with the annual budget request.

QUICK GUIDES TABLE 20 DOD Nuclear-Related Business Opportunities and Procurement Homepages Air Force Business Opportunities http://www.hq.af.mil/SAFAQ/contracting/biz_opty.html Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center http://www.laafb.af.mil/SMC/PK/bizops.htm Army Space and Strategic Defense Command http://www.ssdc.army.mil/ssdc/contract.html Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) Acquisition Reporting Bulletin Board http://www.acq.osd.mil/bmdo/barbb/barbb.htm Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) http://www.arpa.mil/cmo/ Defense Procurement Homepage http://www.acq.osd.mil/dp/ Defense Special Weapons Agency Procurement http://www.dswa.mil/dswaproc/dswaproc.htm DOD Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program http://www.acq.osd.mil/sadbu/sbir/ Electronic Systems Center (Air Force) Bulletin Board http://herbb.hanscom.af.mil/rfp.htm ICBM Requests for Proposal http://farsite.hill.af.mil/rfpso/icbm/icbmhom.html Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division http://128.38.96.125/ Naval Undersea Warfare Center Newport Division http://www.npt.nuwc.navy.mil/contracts/ Navy Online Solicitations http://www.abm.rad.hq.navy.mil/solicit.html

Department of Defense Acquisition Resources

The White House directed requirement for the federal government to utilize electronic means for commerce and budgeting is resulting in an explosion of web sites relating to the federal budget, contracting, and research and procurement programs.

DOD Electronic Commerce Office
http://www.acq.osd.mil/ec/
Policy and links relating to the Department's initiatives to bring more and more contracting information to the web, and to use the web for bid submissions and communications.

Air Force Space Command Long Range Acquisition Estimates
http://www.spacecom.af.mil/21cons/doc/lrae.doc

Navy Acquisition Business Management (ABM) Homepage
http://www.abm.rda.hq.navy.mil
The closest thing to a centralized Navy acquisition point, containing policy, procedures, documentation, and data, sponsored by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition).

Navy Long Range Acquisition Estimates
http://lrae.abm.rda.hq.navy.mil/
Searchable database of projected contractual requirements for FY 1997-2001.

Department of Energy Acquisition Resources

DOE Office of Budget Homepage
http://www.cfo.doe.gov/budget/index.htm

DOE Procurement and Assistance Management
http://www.pr.doe.gov/

DOE Business Opportunities Homepage
http://www.pr.doe.gov/prbus.html

PADS ONLINE (DOE Procurement and Assistance Data System)
http://www.doe.gov/waisgate/pads.html
Searchable WAIS repository of contractual information for all active unclassified procurement and financial assistance awards. Data includes procurement awards and active financial assistance awards, excluding interagency agreements, awards for procurements under $25,000, inactive and retired awards.

DOE Acquisition Regulations
http://www.pr.doe.gov/dear.html

DOE Electronic Commerce News
gopher://VM1.HQADMIN.DOE.GOV:70/11/doemenu1//ecnews

QUICK GUIDES TABLE 21 DOE Business Opportunities and Procurement Homepages DOE Business Opportunities http://www.pr.doe.gov/prbus.html Albuquerque Operations Office http://www.doeal.gov/doe_al/sites/bus-al.htm Chicago Operations Office http://www.anl.gov/DOE-CH/division/acq/acq_grnt.htm INEEL (Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies (LITCO)) http://www.inel.gov/procurement/litco/business.html Nevada Operations Office http://www.nv.doe.gov/ Oak Ridge (Operations, Procurement and Contracts Division) http://www.doe.gov/procurement/oro_home.html Ohio Field Office http://www.ohio.doe.gov/dobus.html Richland Operations Office (Hanford) http://www.hanford.gov/procure/pro.htm Sandia Laboratories http://www.sandia.gov/doing_bus.html Sandia/California http://www.ca.sandia.gov/Business/index.html