Tauscher and the Labs

This week, Hillary Clinton tapped Ellen Tauscher for undersecretary of Arms Control and International Security.  According the Washington Times, former CSIS Senior Adviser Bob Einhorn was offered the position but chose to decline and instead take a senior adviser role. Joe Cirincione had an amusing commentary on the Cable:

Both are top shelf ... Bob Einhorn is the Thomas Jefferson of arms control-erudite, scholarly, and experienced. Ellen Tauscher is more Andrew Jackson--strategic, powerful, with a populist touch. Both are deeply knowledgeable, Bob with treaties and diplomacy, Ellen with nuclear programs and politics. ... Trying to stop Tauscher from getting a treaty ratified would like trying to stop Sherman from marching to Atlanta. Ideally, Secretary Clinton can get the best of both worlds, having Ellen Tauscher as Undersecretary and Bob Einhorn as a special advisor.

Now that the dust has settled, the question is what kind of policies will Tauscher look to push.  With the press saying things like "Tauscher Signals Leftward Shift on Arms Control," the nonproliferation community is fired up about the renewed momentum she will try to put behind initiatives like the CTBT.  The labs, however, may not be feeling the March Madness.  Tauscher was quick to take credit for getting rid of RRW when she said, "RRW is dead, and I confess I did kill it."  She also argued to renew the "Spartt-Furse" law that prohibted research and development of mini-nukes in some November comments at CAP.  The lack of enthusiasm for allowing research and development at the labs will not helping the inceasingly alarming reports of atrophy within the complex.  At the same time, Chemical & Engineering News had a thorough article in January that had a number of quotes and opinions from Tauscher on the role of the labs in the new nuclear security environment.  Possibly due to the new administration according the article, Tauscher has greatly modified her view on modernizationesque programs and emphasized the importance of the labs:

But she now supports a new weapon if it follows a path leading to the elimination of all nuclear weapons. For Tauscher, that weapon must be safer and more secure than those in today's stockpile but identical in yield and function. She remains opposed to any testing and says that NNSA must instead rely on science to ensure the weapon works. "No new launch platforms. No new testing. The definition of 'weapons' is not changed. What we are doing is making improvements on weapons that won't move us into where we are actually enhancing their capability," she says. Using a car metaphor, Tauscher says her mechanic can enhance her car's safety, reliability, environmental impact, and security. "But after he's done, my car is still a car. It doesn't go faster, it doesn't fly, and it doesn't make coffee." In return, she says, she wouldn't have to maintain her other five cars that are on blocks in the garage. "I can get rid of them," she adds. Although the debate about the future of DOE's nuclear weapons complex is unlikely to give immediate comfort to lab scientists, Tauscher is not concerned. She takes a long view and calls the labs "the jewels in the crown" of worldwide science innovation. "I am not suggesting that the labs decline as we cut the number of weapons. Rather, the labs might actually have an increase in work with a growing national security role," Tauscher explains. "They have a history of attracting the best minds in the U.S., and they will continue to do so. While lab job security is not what it was 25 or 30 years ago, I think people at the labs probably should have the least concern because of their skill set," she says. "The labs' missions have morphed and changed over the years and will continue to do so," she points out. "I think there is plenty of work for them to do."