WASHINGTON -- Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico today expressed his unequivocal opposition to a Senate bill that would abolish the Department of Energy (DOE) and turn over control of the nation's laboratories and nuclear stockpile to the Defense Department.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today conducted a hearing on S.1678, a bill to abolish the DOE. Domenici is a member of this committee and chairman of the Senate Energy andWater Development Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the DOE and its nuclear laboratories, like Sandia and Los Alamos.

In an opening statement and in questioning witnesses at the hearing, Domenici made it clear that he does not believe the Defense Department should be given control of the nuclear stockpile, environmental clean up responsibilities, nonproliferation and other activities now conducted under civilian control by the DOE.

"The bill would transfer most of the DOE defense functions to the Defense Department, and I remain unalterably opposed to that," Domenici said.

"I will resist with every ounce of Senate capability I have the transfer of these nuclear deterrent functions to the Department of Defense under any circumstance. They don't belong with the Defense Department, so a huge portion of the so-called reform in this bill will go right out the window in terms of getting rid of the Department of Energy and transferring it to the Department of Defense," Domenici said.

Domenici predicted that the bill, which is sponsored by Senator Rod Grams of Minnesota, will not clear the Congress this year, and called for indepth hearings next year to look at measures to reform DOE and reduce the department's costs.

"I am not against innovation, reforms or trying to save money at DOE, but I find many faults in this bill," Domenici said.

Domenici also emphasized the critical role the national laboratories, like Los Alamos and Sandia, have both in national security and in scientific breakthroughs that benefit the nation.

"We have lived for 50 years with civilian control over the development of our nuclear arsenal and it has served us well. We have had the safest nuclear arsenal, even under the most serious circumstances and we have not been caught lacking," Domenici said.

"In addition, we are already doing some good things to reduce costs at the DOE, including reducing administrative costs next year by between 16-25 percent. It is not a lead pipe cinch that stockpile stewardship, environmental cleanup and other activities will be handled any better under the Department of Defense. Transferring the major functions that have to do with preserving our nuclear stockpile to the Defense Department would be the wrong thing to do," he said.