[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 144 (Thursday, September 7, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S5071]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 847. Mr. UDALL (for himself and Mr. Heinrich) submitted an 
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill H.R. 2810, to 
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2018 for military activities 
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for 
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military 
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which 
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of section 3201, add the following:
       (b) Certification of Sufficiency of Budget Requests.--Not 
     later than 10 days after the date on which the budget of the 
     President for a fiscal year is submitted to Congress pursuant 
     to section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, the 
     Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board shall submit to the 
     congressional defense committees a letter--
       (1) certifying that the requested budget is sufficient for 
     the conduct of the safety reviews that the Board intends to 
     conduct in that fiscal year; or
       (2) if the Board is unable to make the certification 
     described in paragraph (1), including a list of such reviews 
     and the estimated level of additional funding required to 
     conduct such reviews.
       (c) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board was 
     chartered by Congress with an important mission to provide 
     independent recommendations and advice to the President and 
     the Secretary of Energy to protect public health and employee 
     safety at defense nuclear facilities of the Department of 
     Energy;
       (2) the role of the Board has necessarily evolved as the 
     mission of the Department has changed over time, but the 
     Board will continue to be vitally important as the Department 
     continues major efforts to modernize the nuclear weapons 
     stockpile and update its infrastructure in the 21st century; 
     and
       (3) any significant change to the Board and its mission can 
     only be considered by the Board as a whole with oversight by 
     Congress and requires legislative changes approved by 
     Congress.
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