The Senate and House fiscal 2017 energy and water appropriations bills meet President Barack Obama’s budget request to fund the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at $12.9 billion, agreeing on most major funding items with the exception of the mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel facility construction project.
The House and Senate subcommittees moved their bills to full committee consideration earlier this week. The House Appropriations Committee will conduct a full committee markup next week, while its Senate counterpart on Thursday passed its version of bill, which the full Senate is expected to consider next week. The $37.4 billion House bill provides $259 million more than the fiscal 2016 enacted amount and $168 million more than the Obama administration’s budget request for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, according to the committee.
The $12.9 billion proposed for the DOE’s nuclear weapons and nonproliferation programs, a $327 million increase from the currently enacted level, encompasses $9.3 billion for weapons activities, or $438 million over the currently level; $1.4 billion for naval nuclear reactors, or $45 million over the current level; and $1.8 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation, or $118 million less than the currently enacted amount, according to the bill draft. In its fiscal 2017 budget request, DOE requested $12.9 billion for the NNSA, including $9.2 billion for weapons activities and $1.8 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation. The NNSA currently receives $12.5 billion to maintain the U.S. nuclear stockpile, modernize nuclear security infrastructure, and conduct nonproliferation activities.
The House bill provides $340 million for the construction of the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, even though the president proposed to cancel the program and requested $285 million for an alternative dilution and disposal approach. Meanwhile, the Senate version provides $270 for MOX and gives the secretary of energy reprogramming authority for the funding, which could involve “the reallocation of funds from one construction project identified in the agency’s budget justification to another project or a significant change in the scope of an approved project,” the bill report said. Senate appropriators said Wednesday they have asked the chamber’s Armed Services Committee to hold a hearing on MOX to guide the Appropriations Committee on a path forward.
The Senate version of the bill also provides $12.9 billion for the NNSA, including the same $9.3 billion for weapons activities and $1.8 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation. As part of the NNSA’s weapons activities, it proposes $3.3 billion for directed stockpile work, including $1.3 billion for warhead life-extension programs, highlighting the W76 life-extension program as the committee’s highest priority. It also directs the secretary of energy and the Nuclear Weapons Council to submit a report to the appropriations committees of both chambers on “a military justification for the Long Range Stand-Off missile and its operational capabilities” and “a detailed explanation of the extent to which conventional explosive systems can meet the same or similar military objectives.”
The Air Force intends to award a contract in fiscal 2018 for nuclear cruise missiles, which are expected to cost between $20 billion and $30 billion for roughly 1,000 missiles, that will carry either conventional or nuclear warheads and are compatible with various aircraft. The language challenging the LRSO reflected Senator Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) comments during the subcommittee hearing this week that the weapon may be “unaffordable” and “unnecessary,” and that “spending on this weapon and the warhead would crowd out other funding for higher national security priorities. We have non-nuclear options that can achieve the same objectives.” Last December, Feinstein was one of several senators who wrote a letter to Obama calling for the program to be canceled for the same reasons.
The Senate bill provides $2.7 billion for NNSA infrastructure and operations – a $453 million increase from the currently enacted level – which maintains $575 million in funding for ongoing construction of the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. This funding is also intended to stabilize the growth of deferred maintenance, upgrade aging NNSA infrastructure through recapitalization projects, and fund other construction projects. Under this category, facility operations for NNSA sites would remain funded close to current levels: for example, Y-12 would drop by $3.6 million to $117 million, the Nevada National Security Site would increase by $3.5 million to $92.5 million, the Pantex Plant in Texas would fall by $3 million to $55 million, and the Sandia National Laboratories would spike by $2.7 million to $118 million.
The defense nuclear nonproliferation budget in the Senate bill includes $344 million for global activities to secure nuclear materials and boost nuclear trafficking prevention capabilities, as well as $272 million for nuclear counterterrorism and incident response, which is meant for rapid response to nuclear or radiological incidents. The Senate bill also provides at least $5 million for the Integrated University Program “to cultivate the next generation of leaders in nonproliferation, nuclear security, and international security” by awarding fellowships to students pursuing degrees in nuclear specialties.
The details of the House bill have not yet been released.
