The Energy Department had asked for $89 million for the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, but the House Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee stripped all of the program's money out of the budget.
Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, a vocal opponent of the RRW program, praised the move.
"I think it sends a message that we ought to be having a conversation about what our long-term nuclear weapons policy will be," Matheson said. "These decisions have been made in a vacuum. We ought to take a step back as a country and talk about this and decide what we should and shouldn't be doing."
Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., the chairman of the subcommittee, said a comprehensive nuclear strategy is needed in order to shrink the stockpile of nuclear weapons, and until that strategy takes shape "there will be no new facilities or Reliable Replacement Warhead."
"Given the track record of mismanagement at the agency for projects that have a plan, I don't think it is asking too much for a comprehensive nuclear strategy before we build a new nuclear weapon," Visclosky said.
The funding levels still have to go through full committee, the House and the Senate.
Matheson has expressed concern that development of a new nuclear weapon could lead to renewed testing, possibly in Nevada. Last week, Matheson once again introduced legislation aimed at requiring a series of safety checks should new testing be pursued.
His bill, which he also introduced in the last Congress, would mandate a full environmental study and congressional approval before a test could be conducted, and would require careful monitoring.
"The bill itself will be a challenge to move and it gives us a starting point to take a look at all those issues," he said.
Matheson also sent a letter, along with Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., asking the chairman to consider holding a hearing to review the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The law was created to compensate people sickened by exposure to fallout from weapons tests, as well as uranium miners, millers and ore transporters.
Simpson and Matheson would like the 1990 act reviewed, believing the list of counties currently eligible for RECA should perhaps be expanded to include northern Utah and parts of Idaho.
