Budget & Policy

The White House on Tuesday nominated a former Capitol Hill staffer as general counsel for the Department of Energy. William Cooper is currently senior counsel and director in the Washington, D.C. branch of McConnell Valdés, a corporate law firm based in Puerto Rico. His prior positions as a congressional staffer include staff director for the […]

The Senate on Wednesday voted 87-10 in favor of advancing the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which provides no support for shipping radioactive waste from U.S. defense programs to the always-controversial planned repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. This is the latest hit to the Trump administration’s efforts to resume licensing for the underground […]

The White House on Tuesday nominated a former Capitol Hill staffer as general counsel for the Department of Energy. William Cooper is currently senior counsel and director in the Washington, D.C. branch of McConnell Valdés, a corporate law firm based in Puerto Rico. His prior positions as a congressional staffer include staff director for the House […]

The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed the final version of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, clearing the way for President Donald Trump to sign a bill that allows the Department of Energy to build a low-yield nuclear warhead. The $717 billion bill sailed through the Senate on an 87-10 vote, less than a […]

Tim Morrison, a staffer on the House Armed Services Committee who helped shape the ongoing nuclear modernization program started under the Barack Obama administration, left the Hill last month to become senior director for weapons of mass destruction and biodefense at the White House National Security Council. That is according to a farewell email Morrison […]

The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed the final version of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, clearing the way for President Donald Trump to sign a bill that would tighten congressional oversight of the Hanford Site in Washington state and allow the Department of Energy to build a low-yield nuclear warhead. The $717 billion […]

The Senate plans to approve the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which contains major policy provisions for active nuclear weapons programs and Cold-War waste cleanup at the Department of Energy, before it leaves Washington for a brief summer recess next week, according to a spokesperson for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). At deadline […]

The White House on Friday announced plans to nominate a former Capitol Hill staffer as general counsel for the Department of Energy. William Cooper is currently senior counsel and director in the Washington, D.C. branch of McConnell Valdés, a corporate law firm based in Puerto Rico. His prior positions as a congressional staffer include staff director […]

The final version of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which now needs only Senate approval and a presidential signature to become law, authorized no funding to send high-level nuclear waste generated by U.S. defense programs to the long-planned Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) quickly claimed credit for the lack […]

In what could amount to some housekeeping against the day the Department of Energy has a part to play in North Korean nuclear disarmament, Congress plans to extend the agency’s authority to accept weapon-grade fissile materials for sites around the world through 2023. The extension is part of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), […]

The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a compromise defense authorization bill that would allow the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to build a new low-yield nuclear warhead in fiscal 2019, and the Senate could follow suit as soon as next week. Shortly after the House approved the conference report for the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act […]

The congressional conference version of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes the Senate spending allowance for defense environmental cleanup: the single-largest bloc of annual funding at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. The House of Representatives voted 359-54 Thursday in favor of the compromise bill report released earlier in the week, […]

In what could amount to some housekeeping against the day the Department of Energy has a part to play in North Korean nuclear disarmament, Congress plans to extend the agency’s authority to accept weapon-grade fissile materials for sites around the world through 2023. The extension is part of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), […]

The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which the House could vote on Thursday, calls on the Pentagon to speed up modernization of the nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic-missile fleet and air-launched cruise missiles. The unified National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) picked up House language requiring the Pentagon to find some way of speeding up the programs. The […]

The House could vote Thursday morning on a compromise defense spending bill that would allow the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to build a new low-yield nuclear warhead in fiscal 2019. If the House approves the conference report for the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the Senate would have to follow suit before President […]

The congressional conference version of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes the Senate spending allowance for defense environmental cleanup: the single-largest bloc of annual funding at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management. The Senate version of the NDAA met the Energy Department’s request for $5.63 billion in defense environmental cleanup funding […]

About two weeks after they began them, House and Senate members on Monday finished final negotiations on a unified fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which each chamber must now approve before President Donald Trump can sign it into law. However, lawmakers had not released the full report on the compromise version of the bill […]

As soon as Wednesday, only days before members leave for their summer recess, the House of Representatives could approve a compromise defense policy bill authorizing a new low-yield nuclear warhead, according to Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). McCarthy firmed up the timeline for final House passage of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) […]

Nearly a week after a technically bipartisan delegation of House members and staff visited Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., lawmakers still have not set a date to begin final negotiations on a 2019 budget bill that, technically, could include funding for the proposed waste-repository. Those negotiations, a bicameral conference committee of lawmakers from the […]

Nearly a week after a technically bipartisan delegation of House members and staff visited Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., lawmakers still have not set a date to begin final negotiations on a 2019 budget bill that, technically, could include funding for the proposed waste-repository. Those negotiations, a bicameral conference committee of lawmakers from the […]

Having already shifted the Energy Department’s Cold War cleanup office to a different undersecretary, the Donald Trump administration isn’t finished yet in remodeling DOE, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee was told Thursday. The administration wants to make the Energy Department more efficient and better able to carry out core missions, including “addressing the […]

More than a week after they stalled out, Congress still has not rescheduled final negotiations on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s 2019 budget, which would include funding for a new low-yield nuclear warhead. The negotiations, a bicameral conference committee of lawmakers from the House and Senate, were supposed to start July 12. They were abruptly […]

The House of Representatives could vote on a compromise version of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act next week, a spokesperson for the chamber’s Armed Services Committee said Thursday. The annual NDAA — one of the few bills Congress reliably passes every year — sets funding ceilings and policy for federal defense programs, including the […]

WASHINGTON — The ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee said reconciling different versions of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act will be a challenge for the House and Senate. “We’re still working on it,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing sister publication Defense Daily here Tuesday. “We’ll continue our discussions, […]

Congress still had not rescheduled final negotiations over the Department of Energy’s 2019 budget bill at deadline Monday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, according to spokespersons for the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. The House and Senate were set to meet in conference to produce a unified 2019 appropriations bill on Thursday, but the meeting […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has scheduled a hearing Thursday at 10 a.m. to consider modernization proposals for the Energy Department as well as the Department of Interior. While there were few details available as of Monday afternoon, the Executive Director of DOE’s Office of Policy, Bernard McNamee, is scheduled to testify. A […]

WASHINGTON — The House and Senate delayed the start of final negotiations on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s fiscal 2019 budget until at least next week, a spokesperson for the House Appropriations Committee said.  The House and Senate were supposed to meet Thursday to begin resolving their differences on a three-bill appropriations package that includes […]

The House and Senate are a step closer to resolving their differences on a three-bill appropriations package that includes the Department of Energy fiscal 2019 budget, after the upper chamber on Wednesday voted to begin final negotiations on the measure. In a procedural move that cleared the way for lawmakers from each chamber to negotiate […]

WASHINGTON — The leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services committees expect by July 27 to finish final negotiations on the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, which would enable the Department of Energy to design a new low-yield nuclear warhead. That is about two weeks from the day the conferees — members of the […]

Congress this week delayed final negotiations on a 2019 spending bill that includes the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission budgets for disposal of spent nuclear-reactor fuel, with the House again seeking to fund the proposed Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada and the Senate again opposing it. The House and Senate were supposed to […]