Budget & Policy

With members of the House out of town this week, Congress made little progress on authorizing and appropriating government funding, including measures covering the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission. However, Armed Services Committee staffers worked behind the scenes this week to hash out differences in the House and Senate versions of the 2020 […]

President Donald Trump on Thursday officially nominated Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette to replace Rick Perry, who will resign as secretary of energy on Dec. 1. Brouillette, a former auto-insurance lobbyist with some turn-of-the-millennium Washington experience on his rapidly expanding resume, must be confirmed by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee before he […]

House Appropriations defense subcommittee Chairman Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) said Nov. 6 that he will not run for office again in 2020, ending a 35-year career in public office and opening up the chairmanship to new candidates should Democrats hold the majority after next year’s elections. “For my entire career I have worked to build support […]

A breakthrough on fiscal year 2020 defense authorizations and appropriations is unlikely this week as House members are out of town and Armed Services Committee staffers work to hash out differences in House and Senate bills behind the scenes, lawmakers said Nov. 5. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) told reporters that […]

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) on Monday said he would not reverse his decision to retire, even with the opportunity to take the top Republican spot on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Shimkus said last week he would reconsider his Aug. 30 announcement that he would not seek re-election in 2020 after Energy and Water […]

With less than three weeks to go before the current continuing resolution runs out, President Donald Trump has so far refused to pledge to sign a new agreement to prevent a potential government shutdown. Speaking to reporters Sunday, Trump said his commitment is contingent upon the deal that lawmakers work out. “I wouldn’t commit to […]

The White House on Wednesday nominated a new inspector general for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Robert Feitel is currently a trial attorney for the section of the Department of Justice that assists with federal death penalty cases. He would succeed Hubert Bell, who retired on Dec. 31, 2018, after more than 22 years as […]

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), a longtime supporter of cleaning up the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, said Monday he would not run for re-election in 2020. “So, I will not seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives, nor election to any other office, but instead I will close the public […]

Prospects for timely passage of a full 2020 budget for the Department of Energy and other agencies dimmed a little this week, when most Senate Democrats refused to curtail debate on spending legislation that includes funding for President Donald Trump’s proposed southern border wall. The Senate failed Thursday to invoke cloture on a basket of […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said Tuesday the Department of Energy should provide better documentation of how it manages the payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) program for communities around nuclear facilities. The Energy Department handed out $23 million in PILT revenue to communities near a dozen nuclear laboratory and cleanup sites in fiscal 2017. […]

A backup defense authorization act unveiled this week would authorize $16.5 billion in Department of Energy nuclear-weapon spending for 2020, and explicitly authorize new program starts to bolster nuclear warhead and naval fuel efforts. Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) lifted the lid on the so-called “skinny” National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) late Tuesday. […]

The top foreign affairs Democrats in Congress on Tuesday asked the State Department for a briefing about efforts to extend — or not extend — the New START arms control treaty that limits U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear weapons. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Bob […]

Prospects for timely passage of a permanent 2020 for the Department of Energy and other agencies dimmed a little this week, when most Senate Democrats refused to curtail debate on spending legislation that includes funding for President Donald Trump’s proposed southern border wall. The Senate failed Thursday to invoke cloture on a basket of budget bills, […]

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), a longtime supporter of cleaning up the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, said Monday he would not run for re-election in 2020. “I will not seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives, nor election to any other office, but instead I will close the public service […]

Prospects for timely passage of a permanent 2020 budget for the Department of Energy and other agencies dimmed a little this week, when most Senate Democrats refused to curtail debate on spending legislation that includes funding for President Donald Trump’s proposed southern border wall. The Senate failed Thursday to invoke cloture on a basket of […]

A backup defense authorization bill unveiled this week by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) would authorize 2020 Department of Energy defense-nuclear spending and explicitly authorize starts for several new programs. Inhofe lifted the lid on the so-called “skinny” fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) late Tuesday. The measure drops many of […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said Tuesday the Department of Energy should provide better documentation of how it manages the payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) program for communities around nuclear facilities. The Energy Department handed out $23 million in PILT revenue to communities near a dozen nuclear laboratory and cleanup sites in fiscal 2017. […]

Prospects for a permanent 2020 Department of Energy budget dimmed a little on Tuesday in the face of the continued political battle over President Donald Trump’s proposed southern border wall. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Democrats would block a package of appropriations bills that includes the budgets for DOE and the Pentagon because it […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday effectively selected an Argentine diplomat as its new director general. Rafael Mariano Grossi received a majority vote in closed balloting by the Board of Governors for the U.N. nuclear watchdog – 24 of 35 members, according to an IAEA press release. Grossi would receive formal appointment from […]

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), a longtime supporter of cleaning up the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state, said Monday he would not run for re-election in 2020. “So, I will not seek re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives, nor election to any other office, but instead I will close the public […]

The leader of the Senate Armed Services Committee plans to introduce a stripped-down version of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act next week as a last-ditch effort to push colleagues to reach consensus on a number of partisan issues that have gummed up final negotiations on the full bill. “This is sincere, but this […]

President Donald Trump said he plans to nominate Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette to replace Rick Perry as head of the agency responsible for U.S. nuclear weapons and Cold War nuclear-waste cleanup. Brouillette has been Perry's deputy secretary for just over two years. When Trump first nominated him, a source said the longtime insurance […]

The leader of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) plans to introduce a stripped-down version of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) next week as a last-ditch effort to push colleagues to reach consensus on a number of partisan issues while the conference bill flounders. “This is sincere, but this is only in […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management should revamp its 2017 nuclear cleanup policy to make its remediation decisions more risk-informed, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Reports issued since the 1990s by the GAO and DOE’s Office of Inspector General, among others, urged the nuclear cleanup office, when making decisions about remediation, […]

Members of Nevada’s congressional delegation offered a quick message to the Trump administration’s newly selected successor to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry: Stop trying to bring nuclear waste into the state, and quickly remove the plutonium shipped last year. Perry announced on Oct. 17 that he would resign after more than two-and-a-half years as head […]

The leader of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) plans to introduce a stripped-down version of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) next week as a last-ditch effort to push colleagues to reach consensus on a number of partisan issues while the conference bill flounders. “This is sincere, but this is only in […]

The leader of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) plans to introduce a stripped-down version of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) next week as a last-ditch effort to push colleagues to reach consensus on a number of partisan issues while the conference bill flounders. “This is sincere, but this is only in […]

The House of Representatives’ Science, Space, and Technology Committee last week advanced legislation that would assign the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to assist in disposal of radioactive waste. Committee Chair Eddie Bernice Johnson’s (D-Texas) ARPA-E Reauthorization Act of 2019 now awaits action by the full House. The bill would make a […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management should revamp its 2017 nuclear cleanup policy to make its remediation decisions more risk-informed, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Reports issued since the 1990s by the GAO and DOE’s Office of Inspector General urged the nuclear cleanup office to make its decisions more risk-based  — […]

President Donald Trump said Friday he would nominate Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette to replace Rick Perry as head of the Department of Energy. Brouillette has been Perry's deputy secretary for just over two years. When Trump first nominated him, a source said the longtime insurance lobbyist — Brouillette spent more than a decade […]