Paul Ryan: “Mr. Chairman, this NIF project is over budget. It is behind schedule. It has experienced several technical difficulties…”

“Mr. Chairman, this NIF project is over budget. It is behind schedule. It has experienced several technical difficulties and problems. It has been criticized by the other labs, and it has been plagued with mismanagement. For example, first in the FY 2000 energy and water appropriations bill, the committee asked the DOE for a rebaselining of costs by June 1 of 2000 for this year's appropriations. However, the DOE has pushed off this deadline until mid-September, conveniently past the appropriations date. Given the fact that the GAO report has cited so many problems with the management and the construction of this facility, which DOE acknowledges, these overruns should not be continued. Congress should not appropriate these funds until we have that rebaselining report. Second, a GAO report again was requested by the House Committee on Science last September in 1999. However, we still do not have this report yet, but we have found some preliminary findings from the draft report which is imminently due, yet not in time for this appropriations bill. It shows that the cost estimates are still being overrun. It shows that a project management assessment was required as part of the DOD authorization bill in this year, and that has not been done. It shows that this project began as a $1.2 billion project in 1997 and then slipped to $2.1 billion in the year 2000, according to the DOE.”