Budget & Policy

It will cost about $1.2 trillion in current dollars to modernize and maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal over 30 years, including $261 billion in Department of Energy spending, the Congressional Budget Office said this week. Even fairly major changes to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) part of that portfolio would shave only about $10 […]

The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved two Trump administration nominees to the Energy Department by voice vote. Mark Wesley Menezes of Virginia was approved to be undersecretary for the Department of Energy. Also approved was Paul Dabbar of New York to be undersecretary for science. Most recently, Menezes worked as vice president of federal relations […]

The chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are discussing how to keep the government open after the current continuing resolution (CR) runs out Dec. 8, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Oct. 31. “We are in a four-cornered, bipartisan negotiation over how to fund the government, including the Trump […]

It will cost about $1.2 trillion to modernize and maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal over 30 years, including $261 billion in Department of Energy spending, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday. In the report “Approaches for Managing the Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2017 to 2046,” the nonpartisan office also considered ways to reduce the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspector General’s Office plans in the current federal budget year to review the most serious potential vulnerabilities facing the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board as part of the IG’s responsibility to examine management and performance of the Energy Department watchdog. In documents released last week, the NRC IG said challenges include […]

With the House of Representatives already planning to look at the issue, the Senate on Oct. 19 approved a measure that could result in more predictable Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) for communities surrounding federal facilities, including many across the Energy Department complex. The amendment to the Senate’s fiscal 2018 budget package won approval […]

During the next 12 months, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of the Inspector General plans to review the most serious potential vulnerabilities facing the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board as part of the office’s ongoing duty to examine management and performance of the Energy Department watchdog. In documents released last week, the NRC IG said […]

Lawmakers cloistered on Capitol Hill are set to settle a policy dispute over a new office building for more than 1,000 defense nuclear workers in New Mexico as part of final negotiations over the 2018 National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA). House and Senate lawmakers formally kicked off conference negotiations Wednesday on the NDAA, initiating a process […]

Marc Selinger Defense Daily Leaders of a House-Senate conference committee expressed hope Oct. 25 that they will quickly wrap up negotiations on a final version of the fiscal year 2018 defense authorization bill. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), said that he is confident lawmakers can finish the compromise […]

With the House of Representatives already planning to look at the issue, the Senate on Oct. 19 approved a measure that could result in more predictable Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) for communities surrounding federal facilities, including many across the Energy Department complex. The amendment to the Senate’s fiscal 2018 budget package won approval […]

Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee reiterated their support for a major nuclear-waste policy bill Tuesday, despite misgivings that the measure might delay the day spent reactor fuel is moved away from the power plants that generated it. If the the 45-page Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 became law, it would […]

Thomas Gardiner The last of three Trump administration nominees to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is headed for a Senate floor vote following approval Wednesday by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The panel backed Commissioner Jeff Baran’s reappointment on a voice vote alongside two nominees for assistant administrator spots at the Environmental Protection Agency […]

Leaders of a House-Senate conference committee expressed hope Oct. 25 that they will quickly wrap up negotiations on a final version of the fiscal year 2018 defense authorization bill. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), said that he is confident lawmakers can finish the compromise bill “within the next […]

With the House of Representatives already planning to look at the issue, a measure passed the Senate Thursday night that could result in more predictable Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) for communities surrounding federal facilities, including many across the Energy Department complex. The amendment to the Senate’s fiscal 2018 budget package was sponsored by […]

During the next 12 months, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of the Inspector General plans to review the most serious potential vulnerabilities facing the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board as part of the office’s ongoing duty to examine management and performance of the Energy Department watchdog. In documents released last week, the NRC IG said […]

After a bombshell report that the head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board wants Congress to dissolve the independent Department of Energy watchdog, several seasoned watchers of the weapons complex — running the gamut from former Department of Energy employees to hardcore anti-nuclear activists — said lawmakers should not eliminate the board. “The Board […]

After a bombshell report that the head of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board wants Congress to dissolve the independent Department of Energy watchdog, several seasoned watchers of the weapons complex — running the gamut from former Department of Energy employees to hardcore anti-nuclear activists — said lawmakers should not eliminate the board. “The Board […]

The House and Senate will soon hash out their differences on a fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would sustain a major nonproliferation construction project in South Carolina and call for development of a new intermediate-range missile. The House and Senate each passed differing versions of the bill this summer, and the Senate […]

The House of Representatives is now considering two pieces of legislation that would provide $15 per kilogram payments to communities stuck with spent reactor fuel at nuclear power plants. Rep. Joe Courtney’s (D-Conn.) “Stranded Nuclear Waste Accountability Act of 2017” and Rep. Brad Schneider’s (D-Ill.) “STRANDED Act of 2017” were both introduced in the first […]

The House and Senate will soon hash out their differences on a fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would sustain a major nonproliferation construction project in South Carolina and call for development of a new intermediate-range missile. The House and Senate each passed differing versions of the bill this summer, and the Senate […]

A Texas congressman gave Energy Secretary Rick Perry an opportunity to come clean Thursday about his use of charter aircraft for official government business — something Perry maintained, in line with previous reports, that he has done only once. Rep. Joe Barton (R), in a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee, told […]

The House of Representatives on Thursday voted to go to conference with the Senate on their respective versions of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2018, and selected its slate of conferees. The House panel primarily features 31 members of the lower chamber’s Armed Services Committee: 18 Republicans and 13 Democrats. Members of other […]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a vocal advocate for the Energy Department’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility and a sometimes-vocal critic of President Donald Trump, spent the U.S. Columbus Day holiday golfing with the commander in chief, multiple news outlets reported. CNN captured video of the senator on the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va. A […]

Thomas Gardiner The timeline for advancing the three nominees for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission remained murky Thursday, more than a week after the confirmation hearing for sitting Commissioner Jeff Baran. The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee has not scheduled a vote on giving Baran a full five-year term to June 30, 2023. Similarly, […]

A Texas congressman gave Energy Secretary Rick Perry an opportunity to come clean Thursday about his use of charter aircraft for official government business — something Perry maintained, in line with previous reports, that he has done only once. Rep. Joe Barton (R), in a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee, told […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry is slated to appear Thursday on Capitol Hill to discuss the Energy Department’s “mission and management priorities.” At deadline Monday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, Perry was scheduled to testify at a morning hearing of the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee. The hearing will be webcast on the committee’s website, […]

Thomas Gardiner Federal legislation introduced this week could mean millions of dollars in relief for communities still housing spent reactor fuel at nuclear plants, according to two lawmakers from Illinois. The catalyst for the bill is the former Zion plant in Illinois, where used fuel remains in storage nearly two decades after the facility’s closure […]

The leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee wants the Government Accountability Office to examine whether the Energy Department’s contractor oversight practices are preventing company’s carrying out projects for the agency’s National Nuclear Security Administration from getting work done. The committee is worried that some of the agency’s “burdensome practices” might “limit the efficiency […]

The Government Accountability Office said the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) should draft tighter life-cycle cost and schedule estimates for its nonproliferation programs: something the Energy Department’s semiautonomous nuclear-weapon agency said is difficult to do, given the nature of the work. The NNSA should “require DNN [Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation] programs and subprograms to follow life-cycle […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of August had less than $600,000 in available, unobligated funds for its work on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The regulator is waiting to see whether Congress will approve its request for $30 million in fiscal 2018 to resume adjudication activities for the Department of Energy license application […]