Budget & Policy

While some other federal agencies are bringing personnel back into the workplace, there is no timetable for Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) staff to return to their offices in downtown Washington, D.C. “No date has been set for a return” to board headquarters on Indiana Avenue, DNFSB spokeswoman Tara Tadlock said in a Thursday […]

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this week announced legislation that would require President Donald Trump to extend the New START nuclear arms control treaty with Russia. The measure, which would need a veto-proof majority to become law, would require Trump to extend New START into February 2026 unless […]

The House Armed Services Committee plans to mark up the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act from June 22 to July 1, giving the chamber’s Democratic majority an opportunity to weigh about the dramatic increase proposed for active nuclear weapons programs at the Department of Energy and potential cuts to its nuclear cleanup budget. The annual […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) might lose credibility in the eyes of Department of Energy site host communities if it does not explain its opposition to proposed changes to federal nuclear safety standards in plain words, a community interest group said.  “It would be in the best interest for sites and communities to […]

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday introduced legislation that would require President Donald Trump to extend the New START nuclear arms control treaty with Russia. The measure, which would need a veto-proof majority to become law, would require Trump to extend New START unless Russia “is not […]

While the outcome of the Republican primary remained uncertain Wednesday morning, Teresa Leger Fernandez has apparently won the Democratic Party nomination to succeed Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) as the House member for the congressional district covering the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. Leger Fernandez, an attorney with deep New Mexico roots and endorsements […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in April spent just $84 of its remaining balance from the federal fund intended to pay for a radioactive waste repository. As has been the case each month for more than a year, the agency used the money for unspecified “program planning and support.” The expenditure left it with a Nuclear […]

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Friday released the House’s summer schedule, which shows the majority of June will be used for committee days for members to focus on major legislation to be passed before the end of the fiscal year. In a Dear Colleague note, Hoyer highlighted the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee said Monday it plans from June 8 to 10 to hold individual subcommittee markups and a full panel markup of the fiscal 2021 defense authorization bill. The Strategic Forces part of the legislation, which includes nuclear weapons programs managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), is to be one […]

There is about one month left on the temporary indemnity determination the Department of Energy allowed nuclear-weapon sites to add to their management and operations contracts after the COVID-19 pandemic forced mass telework in mid-March. The determination, which Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette issued on March 26, will lapse on June 30. The decision specified […]

There is about one month left on the temporary indemnity determination the Department of Energy allowed nuclear-weapon sites to add to their management and operations contracts after the COVID-19 pandemic forced mass telework in mid-March. The determination, which Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette issued on March 26, will lapse on June 30. The decision specified […]

There is about one month left on the temporary indemnity determination the Department of Energy allowed nuclear-weapon sites to add to their management and operations contracts after the COVID-19 pandemic forced mass telework in mid-March. The determination, which Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette issued on March 26, will lapse on June 30. The decision specified […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee said Monday it plans from June 8 to 10 to hold individual subcommittee markups and a full panel markup of the fiscal 2021 defense authorization bill. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading across the globe earlier this year, observers worried that social distancing guidelines that have altered normal working routines […]

The latest report that high-level U.S. officials have discussed a return to nuclear explosive testing stirred the usual sentiments of incredulity and puzzlement over the Memorial Day weekend, when some issue watchers wondered what such a development should or even could look like. The Washington Post reported Friday that a high-level White House official said […]

Marshall Billingslea, President Donald Trump’s new point man on arms control, warned Thursday that Congress would undercut arms control negotiations with Russia and China by slowing progress on the modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. “Congress has strongly supported the modernization of our deterrent,” Billingslea, the State Department’s special presidential envoy for arms control, said […]

Senate leaders continued this week to work on liability protections for businesses that reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, after the House’s Democratic majority pushed through a $3-trillion COVID-19 economic relief bill the White House has threatened to veto. The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, H.R. 6800, passed the House in a 208-199 […]

Senate leaders continued this week to work on liability protections for businesses that reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, after the House’s Democratic majority pushed through a $3-trillion COVID-19 economic relief bill the White House has threatened to veto. The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, H.R. 6800, passed the House in a 208-199 […]

Senate leaders continued this week to work on liability protections for businesses that reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, after the House’s Democratic majority pushed through a $3-trillion COVID-19 economic relief bill the White House has threatened to veto. The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, H.R. 6800, passed the House in a 208-199 […]

The Senate on Thursday confirmed two nominations that will return the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to its full five-person membership. Serving Commissioner David Wright and Senate Appropriations Committee staffer Christopher Hanson were both confirmed en bloc, via voice vote from the Senate floor. There was no word at deadline Friday regarding the schedule for Wright and Hanson […]

The nominee for the No. 2 position at the Department of Energy on Wednesday affirmed the Trump administration’s intention to move ahead with a program for interim storage of nuclear waste rather than continuing to press for disposal under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “Let me be very clear about this. The president has been very […]

The nominee for the No. 2 position at the Department of Energy on Wednesday affirmed the Trump administration’s intention to move ahead with a program for interim storage of nuclear waste rather than continuing to press for disposal under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “Let me be very clear about this. The president has been very […]

The  Department of Energy on Monday published the framework that its employees and support services contractors will use to plan their return to federal sites and offices during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The framework quantifies that there are four phases in the oft-discussed federal “phased approach” to reopening: phase 0 through phase 3. Phase 0, […]

The Democratic majority in the House of Representatives on Friday pushed through a $3-trillion COVID-19 economic relief bill, which the GOP-led Senate has refused to take up and the White House has threatened to veto. The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, H.R. 6800, passed the House in a 208-199 vote. It was […]

Businessman and former Navy fighter pilot Mike Garcia won a special election Tuesday in California’s 25th Congressional District to reclaim the seat for the Republican Party. Garcia scored a double-digit win, 56% to 44%, over Democrat Christy Smith, a member of the California State Assembly, with roughly 80% of the ballots counted. Smith conceded defeat […]

The environmental liability of the Energy Department’s Office of Legacy Management is sure to increase from its recent $7.35 billion as it assumes responsibility for more remediated properties, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office. Legacy Management conducts maintenance and surveillance following cleanup of radioactively contaminated sites by DOE’s Office of […]

The Government Accountability Office said Tuesday the Energy Department should use best practices when seeking alternatives to the Pretreatment Facility for the Waste Treatment Plant being built at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The Pretreatment Facility is intended to separate radioactive waste into high-level and low-level streams before processing at the Waste Treatment Plant, […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will next week consider Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes’ nomination to the No. 2 spot at the Department of Energy. The White House in March nominated Menezes as deputy secretary of energy. He would succeed Dan Brouillette, who became energy secretary in December. After a career on Capitol […]

Federal contractors would get leniency for missing deliverables because of their COVID-19 response plans, and prime contractors would be in line for quicker payments, under a Democratic-authored relief bill slated for a vote Friday in the House of Representatives – and which President Donald Trump has said he would veto. The Senate’s Republican leadership also […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee thinks its version of the annual policy-shaping National Defense Authorization Act (NSAA) could pass the upper chamber before the Fourth of July holiday, a committee aide confirmed Monday afternoon. Politico reported this week that the GOP-controlled panel plans to mark up its version of the bill the week of June […]

A coalition of industry, labor, and community groups are asking Congress to fund a one-time $7.25 billion increase in funding for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. The COVID-19-related funding request arrived Friday, while officials with the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee confirmed they will initiate the first phase of an incremental return to […]