The separate-accountability tool reached fewer than one in four projects
The National Nuclear Security Administration spent nearly $24 billion in fiscal 2025 through nine management-and-operating contracts, according to GAO. Its planned modernization portfolio approaches $200 billion over the coming decade.
Yet only five of 21 capital projects with approved cost and schedule baselines were covered by separate contract line items. That is 23.8%, leaving 16 projects inside broader contract structures.
| Measure | Count or amount | Calculated result |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 M&O contract spending | Nearly $24B | Nine contracts |
| Planned decade modernization | Nearly $200B | Agency portfolio |
| Approved-baseline capital projects | 21 | Reviewed universe |
| Projects with separate line items | 5 | 23.8% |
| Projects without separate line items | 16 | 76.2% |
NNSA had experience with the tool but no documented selection rule
GAO found that one smaller project and two former projects had been completed with separate line items, and NNSA was considering two more. The agency nevertheless had no documented criteria for deciding when to use the structure and had not formally captured lessons from prior projects.
The stakes are material: GAO highlighted one project rebaseline that added nearly $4 billion and eight years. A separate line item cannot prevent overruns, but it can isolate project costs, deliverables and accountability from a much larger operating contract.
Most projects lacked the added layer of visibility
The original finding is the portfolio share: more than three-quarters of approved-baseline capital projects did not use the separate line-item approach, even as NNSA entered a historically large modernization cycle.
GAO did not conclude that every project needs a separate line item or that the 16 projects were mismanaged. The accountability question is whether an agency handling nearly $200 billion can explain consistently when it chooses the added control.
Method and limitations
The newsroom divided GAO’s five line-item projects by the 21-project approved-baseline universe and compared that share with the agency’s contract spending and modernization totals. Former and prospective line-item projects are described separately and are not added to the current five.
Cost and schedule baselines can be revised, and classified program details may not be public. The analysis evaluates use of an oversight mechanism, not the technical necessity or security value of individual projects.