10 U.S.C. § 492a — Biennial report on the plan for the nuclear weapons stockpile, nuclear weapons complex, nuclear weapons delivery systems, and nuclear weapons command and control system

(a) Report Required. (1) In general. No later than 30 days after the President’s budget is submitted to Congress under section 1105(a) of title 31 for each odd-numbered fiscal year from 2013 through 2029, the President, consulting with the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Energy, must send the congressional defense committees, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs a detailed report on the plan for the nuclear weapons stockpile, nuclear weapons complex, nuclear weapons delivery systems, and nuclear weapons command and control system. (2) Elements. Each report must include— (A) a detailed description of the plan to improve the safety, security, and reliability of the United States nuclear weapons stockpile; (B) a detailed description of the plan to sustain and modernize the nuclear weapons complex, including making facilities safer, modernizing infrastructure, and preserving key abilities and skills of the nuclear-weapons workforce, including designers and technicians; (C) a detailed description of the plan to maintain, modernize, and replace nuclear-weapons delivery systems; (D) a detailed description of the plan to sustain and modernize the nuclear command and control system; (E) a detailed description of plans to retire, dismantle, or eliminate nuclear warheads or bombs, nuclear-weapons delivery systems, or platforms—including silos and submarines—that carry those warheads, bombs, or delivery systems; (F) a detailed estimate, following paragraph (3), of the budget needed during the 10 years after the report to sustain and modernize the United States nuclear deterrent and nuclear stockpile. The estimate must include costs for the plans in subparagraphs (A) through (E) and applicable costs in the Department of Defense accounts for procurement, military construction, operation and maintenance, and research, development, test, and evaluation. The Secretary may include information beyond those 10 years if the Secretary decides it is accurate and useful for understanding the long-term nuclear modernization plan; and (G) a detailed description of steps taken to carry out the plan in the previous report, including difficulties encountered. (3) Budget estimate contents and methodology. Each estimate under paragraph (2)(F) must describe in detail the included costs and the method used to create the estimate. (4) Extension of deadline for report. (A) If the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Energy jointly decide that a required report cannot be sent on time, they must promptly, and before the President’s budget for that fiscal year is submitted to Congress, tell the specified committees the expected transmission date. They must also brief those committees on the report’s content no later than 30 days after that budget is submitted. (B) The President may not send the report later than 60 days after that budget is submitted. (b) Estimate of Costs by Congressional Budget Office. By July 1 of each year in which the President sends a subsection (a) report, the Director of the Congressional Budget Office must send the congressional defense committees a report containing— (1) an estimate for the 10 years beginning on the report date of the cost to field and maintain the current United States nuclear weapons and delivery systems; (2) an estimate for that period of anticipated life-extension, modernization, or replacement costs for current United States nuclear weapons or delivery systems, including acquisition costs for related programs; (3) the percentage of total defense spending during that period represented by the costs estimated under subparagraphs (A) and (B); and (4) the percentage of total acquisition costs of the military departments and Department of Defense during that period represented by the acquisition costs estimated under subparagraph (B). (c) Comptroller General Review. The Comptroller General must periodically review subsection (a) reports for accuracy and completeness concerning the matters in subsection (a)(2)(F) and (3), and must send the congressional defense committees a summary of each review. (d) Independent Assessment by United States Strategic Command. (1) Within 150 days after the President’s budget is submitted to Congress under section 1105(a) of title 31, for each fiscal year the Commander of United States Strategic Command must complete an independent assessment of the operational effects of whether the Department of Defense and National Nuclear Security Administration have sufficiently carried out, as of the assessment date, their acquisition, construction, and recapitalization programs to modernize United States nuclear forces and meet current and future deterrence requirements. (2) The assessment must evaluate the ongoing execution of modernization programs connected with— (A) nuclear-weapons design, production, and sustainment infrastructure; (B) the nuclear-weapons stockpile; (C) nuclear-weapons delivery systems; and (D) the nuclear command, control, and communications system. (3) Routing and submission. (A) Within 15 days after completing the assessment, the Commander must send it to the Chairman of the Nuclear Weapons Council and notify the congressional defense committees that it was sent. (B) Within 15 days after receiving it, the Chairman must send it, unchanged, to the congressional defense committees. The section does not define the quoted terms “nuclear weapons complex,” “nuclear deterrent,” “recapitalization,” or “deterrence requirements.”