Budget & Policy

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Thursday formalized a decision to make at least 50 nuclear-weapon cores a year at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., and environmental groups immediately raised the prospects of a lawsuit if the agency does not review the plan again. The semi-autonomous Department of Energy agency made its long-expected […]

Among the many subplots of the still-undecided White House contest between President Donald Trump (R) and former vice president Joe Biden (D) is the makeup of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Matthew Moury, the Department of Energy’s associate undersecretary for environment, health, safety, and security, was nominated to a post on the maximum-five-member Defense […]

Should former Vice President Joe Biden (D) ultimately prevail over President Donald Trump (R) in the presidential race, several women — including a Republican — and a black man could be shortlisted as candidates for Biden’s first secretary of energy, a source with experience in both government and industry said this week. As of Friday […]

As Friday deadline approached for Weapons Complex Monitor, the Associated Press had not declared a winner in the presidential election between President Donald Trump (R) and the former vice president, Joe Biden (D).  Biden was leading in electoral votes. Whomever is declared president-elect an intense legal challenge is expected, according to media outlets. While a […]

Among the many subplots of the still-undecided White House contest between President Donald Trump (R) and former vice president Joe Biden (D) is the makeup of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Matthew Moury, the Department of Energy’s associate undersecretary for environment, health, safety, and security, was nominated to a post on the maximum-five-member Defense Nuclear […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Thursday formalized a decision to make at least 50 nuclear-weapon cores a year at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., and environmental groups immediately raised the prospects of a lawsuit if the agency does not review the plan again. The semi-autonomous Department of Energy agency made its long-expected […]

As expected, states were still counting votes for President of the United States at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. Democrats looked on track to maintain their majority in the House of Representatives, but the race to win the Senate was neck and neck, though the Republicans seemed to have a slight edge in the […]

Should former Vice President Joe Biden (D) defeat President Donald Trump (R) in today’s election, several women — including a Republican — and a black man could be shortlisted as candidates for Biden’s first secretary of energy, a source with experience in both government and industry said Monday. The source spoke to Weapons Complex Morning […]

Three months of frozen budgets is probably no big deal for the National Nuclear Security Administration and its portfolio of 21st-century weapons-production construction, but a year’s worth would be bad news, a senior official said recently. “We’re inoculated for a period of about a quarter,” Bob Raines, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) associate administrator […]

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) is bidding farewell to Congress after a more than 20 year stint as an Illinois representative, and he says Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) could be one of the congressmen to replace him as the lower chamber’s main advocate for a permanent nuclear-waste disposal site. Shimkus credited Duncan for helping secure the […]

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) is bidding farewell to Congress after a more than 20-year stint as an Illinois representative, and he says Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) could replace him as the lower chamber’s main advocate for a permanent nuclear-waste disposal site. Shimkus credited Duncan for helping secure a $600 million settlement the federal government paid […]

Nuclear cleanup contractors for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management received $426-million during fiscal 2020 to help cushion the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for employees not able to report to work. That’s according to a spokesperson for the agency’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). The figure represents reimbursements EM paid to […]

Federal agencies were still open for business Thursday morning, after President Trump signed a stopgap budget bill that freezes most federal budgets at 2020 levels through Dec. 11. With appropriations set to lapse at midnight, the Senate on Wednesday cast votes to pass the measure with less than a working day left before the literal […]

Federal agencies remained open for business this week, after President Donald Trump signed a stopgap budget bill that freezes most federal budgets at 2020 levels through Dec. 11 — meaning the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear weapons portfolio temporarily has a budget about $3 billion lower than what it requested. The Senate on Wednesday cast […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will continue carrying out its duties after President Trump signed a stopgap funding bill Wednesday night averting a government shutdown, spokesman Scott Burnell said Thursday.  Burnell did not elaborate on how operations will be impacted, if at all, by the measure, which freezes most federal budgets through early December. The […]

Federal agencies were still open for business Thursday morning, after President Trump signed a stopgap budget bill that freezes most federal budgets at 2020 levels through Dec. 11. With appropriations set to lapse at midnight, the Senate on Wednesday cast votes to pass the measure with less than a working day left before the literal […]

The Senate late Tuesday cleared the first procedural hurdle to prevent an election year government shutdown, voting to end debate on a continuing resolution that would freeze Department of Energy defense-nuclear budgets at 2020 levels through Dec. 11. The roughly quarter-long continuing resolution passed 82 to 6. The measure would provide billions of dollars less […]

At deadline Friday, Congress appeared on track to pass a just-in-time stopgap budget that will force the National Nuclear Security Administration to operate for nearly three months with a budget that’s about $3 billion a year less than what the agency says it needs to keep nuclear maintenance and modernization programs on time. The Senate […]

On Tuesday, with an overwhelming bipartisan vote, the House rewrote and then passed a stopgap spending bill that would freeze budgets for Department of Energy nuclear programs at 2020 levels through Dec. 11. The revised bill sailed through 357-57, with 14 not voting and one voting “present.” All 56 “no” votes, and 13 of those […]

On Tuesday, with an overwhelming bipartisan vote, the House rewrote and then passed a stopgap spending bill that would freeze budgets for Department of Energy nuclear programs at 2020 levels through Dec. 11. The revised bill sailed through 357-57, with 14 not voting and one voting “present.” All 56 “no” votes, and 13 of those […]

Rep. Mike Levin, (D-Calif.) this week filed a five-year, $500m bill to form a spent nuclear fuel research and development program at the Department of Energy. The California congressman has long petitioned to increase oversight of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which is in his jurisdiction and in the process of being decommissioned after […]

Department of Energy defense nuclear programs would be held at their 2020 budgets through Dec. 11, under a short-term continuing resolution the House of Representatives unveiled Monday. The House Rules Committee approved the parameters of debate for the bill on Monday evening. The House had not scheduled a floor vote at deadline Tuesday, but Democrats […]

The House of Representatives was scheduled to write the rules of debate on Monday for the continuing resolution that will fund the government for the early part of fiscal year 2021, which begins in 10 days. The House had not yet unveiled the text of its bill at deadline Monday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, […]

A congressional appropriator predicted this week there will be a short-term continuing resolution passed to keep the Energy Department and other federal agencies running from Oct. 1 into December. “We will not have a budget shutdown,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann said during the virtual National Cleanup Workshop hosted by the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) in cooperation […]

A congressional appropriator predicted this week there will be a short-term continuing resolution passed to keep the Energy Department and other federal agencies running from Oct. 1 into December. “We will not have a budget shutdown,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann said during the virtual National Cleanup Workshop hosted by the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) in cooperation […]

A House-passed 2021 spending bill, which would provide the $816 million the National Nuclear Security Administration requested for its B61-12 life-extension program, would “impair” the government’s ability to deliver that refurbished nuclear bomb on time, a senior Pentagon official told Congress Thursday. “It might not be intuitively obvious how that would affect certain programs because […]

Fresh from his primary victory over Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.), Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) led a big chunk of the Senate’s Democratic caucus, including the minority leader, in calling on conferees to maintain a prohibition against nuclear-explosive testing in the final version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. “A U.S. nuclear weapons testing restart […]

A congressional appropriator predicted this week there will be a short-term continuing resolution passed to keep the Energy Department and other federal agencies running from Oct. 1 into December. “We will not have a budget shutdown,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann said during the virtual National Cleanup Workshop hosted by the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) in cooperation […]

“Individuals from the Department of Energy” collaborated with House Democrats to destroy the National Nuclear Security Administration’s autonomy within the DOE, and cut the Pentagon out of civilian nuclear-weapons budget planning entirely, Sen. James Inhofe said Thursday. “I suppose we should have expected this sort of political maneuvering to continue after what happened earlier this […]

A congressional appropriator predicted Wednesday there will be short-term continuing resolution passed to keep the Energy Department and other federal agencies running from Oct. 1 into December. “We will not have a budget shutdown,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann said during the virtual National Cleanup Workshop hosted by the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) in cooperation with the […]