Budget & Policy

The federal government reopened Tuesday following a three-day shutdown, after Senate Democrats largely dropped their opposition to a stopgap budget bill to keep agencies open through Feb. 8. President Donald Trump signed the bill late Monday evening after it quickly passed through both chambers of Congress. The measure funds the Department of Energy (DOE) at […]

Two top officials at the U.S. Energy Department, including one with responsibility for the Office of Environmental Management (EM), are scheduled to testify Tuesday at a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee hearing on DOE management and priorities. Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar and Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes are the only two witnesses listed […]

The federal government reopened Tuesday following a three-day shutdown, after Senate Democrats largely dropped their opposition to a stopgap budget bill to keep agencies open through Feb. 8. President Donald Trump signed the bill late Monday evening after it quickly passed through both chambers of Congress. The measure funds the Department of Energy (DOE) at […]

The U.S. Department of Energy remains committed to meeting its legal mandate for permanent disposal of spent nuclear reactor fuel, but is waiting on Congress to provide the funding needed to push that program forward, a senior DOE official said Tuesday. Resolving the decades-long impasse on the disposition of what is now more than 75,000 […]

Two top officials at the U.S. Energy Department, including one with responsibility for the Office of Environmental Management (EM), are scheduled to testify Tuesday at a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee hearing on DOE management and priorities. Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar and Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes are the only two witnesses listed […]

The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) criticized the Trump administration’s nearly completed Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) Jan. 24, saying its call for more weapons is unaffordable and unnecessary and would fuel an arms race. “This review is a missed opportunity to introduce realism into our nuclear weapons planning, enhance our security […]

The U.S. Department of Energy remains committed to meeting its legal mandate to permanently dispose of the nation’s spent nuclear reactor fuel, but is waiting on Congress to provide the funding needed to push that program forward, a senior DOE official said Tuesday. Resolving the decades-long impasse on the disposition of what is now more […]

The federal government reopened Monday after a three-day shutdown, after Senate Democrats largely dropped their opposition to a stopgap budget bill to keep agencies open through Feb. 8. President Donald Trump signed the bill late Monday evening. The measure funds the Department of Energy (DOE) at fiscal 2017 levels, but allows the agency’s Inspector General’s […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday, Jan. 30, on the nomination of Anne Marie White to be assistant secretary of energy for environmental management. The panel has scheduled a 10 a.m. business meeting to consider four Trump administration nominations, including White and Melissa F. Burnison as assistant secretary of […]

In his farewell memo last week, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman Sean Sullivan suggested he lost the confidence of the 120 staff members of the independent safety watchdog he led for a year and wanted to disband. “Our fine staff deserves to be led by an executive the staff believes in,” Sullivan, a board […]

Top defense officials were scheduled to brief the Senate Armed Services Committee today in a closed session about the Donald Trump administration’s expansive Nuclear Posture Review, a draft of which leaked to the press in early January. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. at the Office of Senate Security in the Capitol Visitor Center. […]

Sean Sullivan will resign from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety board on Feb. 2, a little more than a year after President Donald Trump elevated the longtime board member to chairman. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) announced Sullivan’s decision late Friday in a press release. In a memo to DNFSB staff, Sullivan said […]

The Senate is slated to vote at 12 noon Eastern time today on a stopgap budget bill that could end the partial government shutdown that began Friday. The bill, which most Democrats and a few Republicans opposed Friday, would restore funding for the Department of Energy (DOE) and other federal agencies through Feb. 8. It […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapon and nonproliferation programs teetered on the brink of a funding lapse Friday at deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, caught up in larger policy and political waves that threatened to temporarily shut down the entire federal government. So, the Department of Energy (DOE) issued fresh guidelines for its civil […]

The California Coastal Commission said it has effectively been forced to approve permits for spent fuel storage at three nuclear power plants because the federal government has yet to establish a permanent national repository for the radioactive waste. Coastal Commission Chair Dayna Bochco emphasized the danger presented by coastal storage of radioactive material from the […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission just last month issued an updated contingency plan for a lapse in funding, fortuitous timing as the federal government appeared on the precipice of a shutdown Friday afternoon. The latest in a series of short-term congressional spending plans, which have kept the federal government open since the current fiscal year […]

The federal government on Friday was within hours of its first shutdown in years as leaders in Washington scrambled for a last-minute deal on another short-term budget. If that fails, the Department of Energy and its Office of Environmental Management could shortly be forced to furlough most employees and suspend many operations. While the House […]

It is time for Congress to take a look at the Department of Energy’s 17 national laboratories and their contribution to the agency’s mission, according to Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas). During a Jan. 9 House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee hearing on DOE modernization, Barton said he plans to draft a bipartisan reauthorization bill for […]

A third South Carolina jurisdiction has officially called on the Department of Energy to move production of plutonium pits — the fissile hearts of nuclear warheads — to the Savannah River Site from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. On Tuesday, the city of North Augusta, which neighbors the Savannah River Site, passed […]

The one-month stopgap budget House Republicans unveiled this week would if passed let only one part of the Department of Energy, its Inspector General’s Office, exceed the fiscal 2017 spending levels at which the rest of the agency has been stuck at for nearly four months. The so-called continuing resolution would extend 2017 spending levels […]

After a series of temporary spending measures, major media outlets are reporting that the chance of a federal government shutdown is growing more likely at the end of the day Friday when the latest stop-gap ends. Congress on Dec. 21 adopted its third budget continuing resolution to all federal agencies operational through Jan. 19. Should […]

David Jonas, who President Donald Trump last year nominated to be the Department of Energy’s general counsel, no longer wants the job, according to a LinkedIn post Jonas published late Jan. 7. “In considering the additional months that would be required for final confirmation, as well as my professional responsibilities at FH+H Law Firm, I […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the safety watchdog for Department of Energy nuclear sites around the country, has issued a new plan for operations in the event of a federal government shutdown. Congress has until Jan. 19 to pass a budget for the remainder of fiscal 2018, or another continuing resolution to keep the […]

WASHINGTON — The semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) might not need all the semiautonomy it has now, Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said here Tuesday in congressional testimony. As part of a three-hour hearing on modernizing the Department of Energy, Brouillette said it was “awkward” that the NNSA has its own legislative affairs […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the safety watchdog for Department of Energy nuclear sites around the country, has issued a new plan for operations in the event of a federal government shutdown. Congress has until Jan. 19 to pass a budget for the remainder of fiscal 2018, or another continuing resolution to keep the […]

Contract management and technical expertise are the major reasons the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) will now report to DOE’s Office of Science, officials said Tuesday during a congressional hearing. Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced EM’s move from the Office of the Undersecretary for Management and Performance to Science on Dec. 15 as […]

Anne M. White’s nomination to become assistant secretary of energy for environmental management appears to be on a fast track. The energy industry consultant’s pending nomination was announced by the White House on Jan. 3, formally submitted to the Senate on Monday, and as of Friday has been scheduled for a Senate Energy and Natural […]

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced Wednesday he would not seek re-election, removing an influential voice on nuclear waste issues from Congress a year from now. Issa has represented a coastal zone north of San Diego, first in the 48th Congressional District and now in the 49th District, since 2001. His exit, announced in a […]

WASHINGTON — Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) wrung a renewed commitment from the Department of Energy to open a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., during a hearing here Tuesday. Shimkus, Congress’ chief advocate for Yucca, pinned down Dan Brouillette, deputy energy secretary, on the agency’s position during a three-hour House […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Please look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Jan. 16.