Nuclear Security Enterprise: Strategic Partnership Projects Can Support Mission, Operations, and Research

Overview

The GAO review highlights that NNSA sites use Strategic Partnership Projects (SPP) to perform reimbursable work for other federal and nonfederal partners, leveraging specialized facilities and technical expertise while recovering full costs through partner reimbursement. Across fiscal years 2019–2024 SPP levels were generally steady, with almost $15 billion in reimbursed costs in constant FY2024 dollars; Sandia National Laboratories accounted for more than half of those costs while the Kansas City National Security Campus saw the most growth. The Department of Defense sponsored the largest share of SPP, and most SPPs were categorized as related to national security. GAO’s work (requested in the Senate committee report accompanying the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025) flagged that reductions in SPP capacity could harm partner missions, reduce technical development opportunities, and increase NNSA’s indirect costs. Contractors that support or compete for SPP work need to assess capacity, capture readiness, and compliance posture now to avoid being caught off-guard if agency priorities or budgets shift.

Immediate Actions (This Week)

• [ ] Obtain and read the GAO SPP report and note points affecting your site or capabilities; contact GAO (Allison Bawden at [email protected]) for any clarifications or data requests.
• [ ] Inventory current SPP-relevant capabilities, classified/unclassified facilities, and available lab/plant capacity to quantify near-term availability to partners.
• [ ] Run a rapid compliance posture check for regimes named in the event (NIST 800-171 (NIST Special Publication 800-171), CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification), DOE Order 471.6, Classified Information Handling, Export Control (ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations)/EAR), 10 CFR Part 810) and flag any immediate gaps that would block reimbursable work.

Short-Term Actions (30 Days)

• [ ] Update your capture plan and go/no-go criteria for SPP opportunities that align with your capabilities; prioritize partners and mission areas showing growth in the GAO review.
• [ ] Refresh past performance packages, capability statements, and technical briefs that emphasize unique facilities or workforce skills cited as hard-to-replicate by SPP partners.
• [ ] Reach out to current federal partners (as applicable) to confirm pipeline needs and explore near-term reimbursable efforts that match your available capacity.

Long-Term Actions (90+ Days)

• [ ] Develop a capacity plan tying workforce training, facility sustainment, and indirect-cost projections to expected SPP activity scenarios (maintain, increase, or decrease SPP).
• [ ] Formalize processes to prioritize mission work vs. reimbursable SPP work, including decision rules for preserving critical mission throughput while capturing beneficial SPPs.
• [ ] Create or update standard reimbursable-work templates (SOWs, MOUs, invoicing, cost-recovery models) to shorten lead times when partners request SPP support.

Compliance Checklist

• [ ] NIST 800-171 — Assess systems handling Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI (Controlled Unclassified Information)) for required controls and remediation plans.
• [ ] CMMC — Determine target maturity for work involving DoD (Department of Defense) partners and map current practices to required levels.
• [ ] DOE Order 471.6 — Confirm procedures for classified matter protection and control are current at sites supporting SPP.
• [ ] Classified Information Handling — Validate facility accreditation, personnel clearances, and handling procedures for classified SPP work.
• [ ] Export Control (ITAR/EAR) — Verify license requirements and export-control reviews for technical work with nonfederal or foreign partners.
• [ ] 10 CFR Part 810 — Assess whether proposed SPP technical assistance to foreign partners requires review under statutory export controls.
• [ ] Nuclear Security Requirements — Ensure site-level nuclear security and safety controls are reconciled with proposed SPP activities.

(Compliance scope TBD — re-evaluate when official guidance or solicitation language is published for specific projects.)

Resources

• GAO SPP review — obtain full report and contact (Allison Bawden, [email protected]) for follow-up.
• Agency monitoring: watch DOE and NNSA public notices and solicitation postings for SPP-related updates.
• For capture best practices and federal proposal guidance, see the primary hub: Winning Federal Contracts Guide (/insights/winning-federal-contracts).
• For compliance deep dives referenced above, consult: CMMC Compliance Guide (/insights/cmmc-compliance-guide) and CUI-Safe CRM Guide (/insights/cui-safe-crm-guide).

How Cabrillo Club Automates This

• Cabrillo Signals War Room — Already detected this event and delivered this briefing within minutes. War Room continues to monitor GAO publications, DOE/NNSA statements, and related regulatory activity so you receive immediate alerts when the SPP landscape shifts or when follow-on solicitations or guidance are published. Use War Room to centralize these updates and distribute them to capture and security leads.
• Cabrillo Signals Match Engine — Automatically rescales your opportunity pipeline when an event like the GAO SPP review changes relevance or priorities. The Match Engine updates opportunity scores and agency alignment in real time so your capture team sees which existing leads climb in priority because they align with SPP-capability demand.
• Cabrillo Signals Intelligence Hub — Tracks affected agencies, the event’s market segments, and related contract vehicles; create saved searches in the Intelligence Hub to get notified when DOE/NNSA or partner agencies post solicitations that match this event profile. Intelligence Hub also maintains linkages between capabilities, NAICS codes (as appropriate), and historical SPP work to streamline bid/no-bid decisions.
• Proposal Studio (Proposal OS) — Generates first-draft technical approaches and compliance matrices tailored to SPP-style reimbursable work using your past-performance library. Proposal Studio can pre-populate cost-recovery language, highlight required compliance citations (NIST 800-171, DOE Order 471.6, etc.), and propose win themes tied to unique facility capabilities referenced in the GAO review.
• Proposal Studio Workflow Tracker — Triggers a 9-gate capture workflow when an SPP-related opportunity appears: opportunity qualification, compliance clearance, technical draft, cost model, review by contracts/legal, partner coordination, final edit, submission, and post-submission audit package. The Workflow Tracker routes approvals, tracks supplier and personnel certifications, and builds an audit-ready documentation package for reimbursable-work accounting.

Call to action: use the War Room alert for this event, run your pipeline through the Match Engine, and start a capture workflow in Proposal Studio to convert any near-term SPP opportunities into executable bids.

Related reading: Winning Federal Contracts Guide (/insights/winning-federal-contracts), CMMC Compliance Guide (/insights/cmmc-compliance-guide), CUI-Safe CRM Guide (/insights/cui-safe-crm-guide).