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February 6, 2008
U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., whose district includes Oak Ridge, is climbing the ladder in Congress, and he makes no bones about plans to put his added seniority and influence to work.
Indeed, his power base is the extremely important energy and water subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.
"Many people are beginning to theorize that I may in the next Congress be the lead Republican on the subcommittee because of the departures that are now so many," Wamp said during a visit to Oak Ridge last week.
He recently became the ranking Republican on the Appropriations military construction and veterans affairs subcommittee, which directs about $70 billion of annual spending.
That will likely be a one-year assignment, Wamp said, because of all the changes taking place, with members of Congress retiring or moving to other assignments. If he rises to the helm of the energy and water subcommittee, he would be one of the main players in funding for the Department of Energy, and that, of course, would be enormous for Oak Ridge.
"As we approach the 111th Congress, if the voters of East Tennessee send me back up there - and I hope they do - energy and water is something that I would really like to help lead."
One of the priorities will be Y-12's work in the nuclear weapons complex, Wamp said.
"I continue to meet with our staff and the leadership … on the entire approach to the weapons complex - obviously, preserving Oak Ridge's role and making sure we have the resources to continue our modernization effort because it is the flagship of the whole reconfiguration."
Asked about the proposed consolidation of contracts, which could put management of Y-12 and the Pantex warhead-assembly plant in Texas under the same contractor, Wamp didn't have a strong opinion at this point.
"I don't really have a position on it, except that I'm going to play a responsible role in making sure that it's sensible and that we utilize our resources. But, frankly, as a team approaches the need to figure this out and make reforms and changes for the nation, I plan to not just play a role for Oak Ridge but for the country, and that's really the transition that I'm going through right now."
Wamp said he'd be open to different contracting approaches.
"But I'm going to make sure that we have what we need in Oak Ridge," he said. "I don't have a pre-disposition on the Pantex-Oak Ridge contract. I do have a predisposition on the mission that we carry out here in Oak Ridge."
Side note: Wamp made it clear that, if he becomes the energy and water subcommittee's Republican leader, he plans to exert direct pressure on the energy secretary to free up a pension increase for Oak Ridge retirees.
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