Groups Thank SECDEF for Unclassified NPR, Stockpile Data
Leaders of more than a dozen public interest organizations and professional societies wrote to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to applaud two recent achievements in nuclear weapons transparency: the publication of the Nuclear Posture Review Report for the first time in unclassified format and the disclosure of the size of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.
“We believe that the public release of the unclassified NPR Report is a significant and long-overdue step in the maturation of our national nuclear policy,” the public interest groups wrote. “Release of the unclassified NPR Report will not resolve the continuing debate over the future of nuclear weapons policy, but it will enable it to proceed on a more informed basis.”
“Similarly, the declassification of the current nuclear stockpile is an historic milestone both in nuclear weapons policy and in classification policy…. We believe this disclosure will serve to strengthen what should be an international norm of increasing transparency on nuclear matters. By leading through example, we hope the U.S. action will elicit a response in kind from other nuclear nations.”
“We also look forward to further steps, including the Department’s future implementation of the Fundamental Classification Guidance Review that was required by the President’s executive order…. This initiative should help to eliminate other obsolete or unnecessary classification restrictions.”
The May 4 letter was coordinated by OpenTheGovernment.org.
Over the past few months, the Trump administration has been laying the foundation to expand the use of the Defense Production Act (DPA) for energy infrastructure and supply chains.
Get it right, and pooled hiring becomes a model for how the federal government decides what to do together and what to do apart. That’s a bigger prize than faster hiring. It’s a more functional government.
As of March 2026, there were at least nine documented U.S. wrongful arrests tied to face recognition misidentification. Errors like these are as much human as machine.
No one will be surprised if we end up with a continuing resolution to push our shutdown deadline out past the midterms, so the real question is what else will they get done this summer?