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Members of Congress beat LANL like a papier-mache punching bag. In what now seems to be near annual ritual on Capitol Hill, members of Congress pummeled Los Alamos National Laboratory like a pinata for more than three hours this morning as they examined the latest in a string of security breaches at the beleaguered Northern New Mexico lab.
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., wants to dismantle the lab completely. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said it seems no one at Los Alamos "gives a damn" about protecting the nation's top nuclear secrets.
DOE and LANL officials tried to make their case for improving the security climate, but most members of a House Energy subcommittee were having none of it. These hearings are not pretty to watch, and must be especially painful for Rep. Tom Udall, who district includes Los Alamos, and Sen. Pete Domenici, who's gone to bat for LANL time and time again.
Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, unleashed this zinger of a joke during the hearing:
"The Secretary of Energy tells the three national labs to jump. Sandia asks how high. Livermore makes an excuse for why it's too busy to jump. Los Alamos asks who the Secretary of Energy is."
Ouch.
"Los Alamos sticks out as the bad child because of its consistent and utter disregard for federal oversight," Brian said.
Read more about this, um, nuclear hearing in tomorrow's Journal.
Reprint story -- Email the reporter at mcoleman@abqjournal.com. Call the reporter at 202-525-5633
