Budget & Policy

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D), Nevada’s junior U.S. senator, announced Tuesday she was working from home with a mild case of COVID-19. Rosen, who ousted former Sen. Dean Heller (R) in 2018 to turn the state’s upper-chamber delegation blue, is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee that annually authorizes defense programs, including those at […]

The Senate may not pass its big defense policy bill before voters decide who controls Congress in November’s midterm elections, the head of the chamber’s Armed Services Committee said Wednesday at an industry conference. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) is “pushing hard” to get the chamber’s 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed before lawmakers bill […]

The Senate may not pass its big defense policy bill before voters decide who controls Congress in November’s midterm elections, the head of the chamber’s Armed Services Committee said Wednesday at an industry conference. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) is “pushing hard” to get the chamber’s 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed before lawmakers bill […]

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D), Nevada’s junior U.S. senator, announced Tuesday she is working from home with a mild case of COVID-19. Rosen, who ousted former Sen. Dean Heller (R) in 2018 to turn the state’s upper-chamber delegation blue, is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee that annually authorizes defense programs, including those at […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. 07: Meeting, Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB) Chairs. 10:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. Eastern time. La Fonda on the Plaza, La Terraza Meeting Room, 100 East San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501. And streaming […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published on Monday in observance of the U.S. Labor Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2022.  

The Department of Energy expects next month to publish its key findings from a review of hundreds of public comments on its ongoing effort to site a federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, an agency spokesperson said this week. DOE is “going through the formal review process” for its November request for information […]

Republican congressional staffer Joe Sempolinski is the apparent winner of a special election Tuesday for New York’s 23rd Congressional District, enabling him to serve out the final months in the unexpired term of his old boss, former Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.). According to press reports, Sempolinski captured roughly 52% of the vote against Democrat Max […]

Voters in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, which includes the West Valley Demonstration Project nuclear cleanup site, were to go to the polls Tuesday to decide who they want to fill the final months in the unexpired term of former Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.). Democratic Party candidate Max Della Pia goes up against Republican Joe […]

President Joe Biden was scheduled Tuesday to sign into law a sweeping spending package that would, among other things, give nuclear power plant operators a tax break in hopes of keeping the U.S. reactor fleet humming along. If enacted, the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed the House Friday on a 220-207 party line vote, would […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is one step closer to having its executive committee back at full strength, as one of the agency’s two new top regulators took her oath of office this week, a spokesperson said. Annie Caputo was sworn in as an NRC commissioner Tuesday, the agency said in a press release dated Thursday. […]

With Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm set to visit the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state Friday a coalition of organizations wrote President Joe Biden Tuesday urging a $1 billion increase in cleanup funding for the former plutonium production site. “Given its role as the workhorse for plutonium production, the scope of Hanford’s cleanup […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose 4th congressional district includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, is the evident winner of an open primary, despite being one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 capitol insurrection. But Newhouse’s fellow House Appropriations Committee member in a neighboring district, who […]

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 capitol insurrection, Tuesday conceded her loss in Washington’s 3rd Congressional district primary on Aug. 2. “I’m proud that I always told the truth, stuck to my principles, and did what I knew to be […]

With Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm set to visit the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state later this week, a coalition of organizations wrote President Joe Biden Tuesday urging a $1 billion increase in cleanup funding for the former plutonium production site. “Given its role as the workhorse for plutonium production, the scope of […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection, holds the No. 1 spot in a primary for his 4th Congressional district, while a similarly-situated Washington incumbent has lost her lead for the crucial runner-up slot in her primary. The Associated Press called the […]

The House was scheduled to vote Friday on a $370 billion energy, climate and tax bill that included tax credits for nuclear power plants, a budget increase for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy and more than half a billion dollars for advanced nuclear reactor fuel. A schedule maintained by the office of House Majority Leader […]

As of Thursday evening, House Appropriations Committee member Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) was narrowly leading an open primary in his 4th Congressional district that encompasses the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state with a Democratic Party challenger 1,000 votes behind. Newhouse, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump […]

The highly-contaminated Hanford Site in Washington state accounted for over half the environmental liability for the entire Department of Energy, but opportunities exist for curbing increasing costs at the property, according to a congressional watchdog. In a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said DOE could save “tens of billions of dollars” by abandoning […]

A draft energy and water development bill for fiscal 2023 posted last week by the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee directs the Department of Energy to spend $2 million on a “reindustrialization” study at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The document did not provide any detail on the scope of the study or when […]

The full Senate this week confirmed the White House’s nominees to fill out the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, bringing the nuclear safety regulator’s executive committee to five members for the first time in over a year. Annie Caputo and Bradley Crowell, who the upper chamber approved to become NRC commissioners on a voice vote Tuesday night, […]

As of Wednesday morning, House Appropriations Committee member Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) was leading an open primary in his 4th Congressional district that encompasses the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state. Newhouse, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 insurrection, was No. 1 out […]

While the Department of Energy’s latest environmental review of the problem picked no preferred site for long-term storage of elemental mercury, the feds favor placing the metal in an existing facility that could accept the material quickly. “Because statutory milestone dates have now passed, DOE needs to designate a facility and begin accepting elemental mercury […]

The political future of Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose 4th Congressional district surrounds the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, faces a big hurdle Tuesday during an open primary, his first electoral test since casting one of 10 GOP votes in the House of Representatives to impeach former president Donald Trump following the […]

The highly-contaminated Hanford Site in Washington state accounted for over half the environmental liability for the entire Department of Energy, but opportunities exist for curbing increasing costs at the property, according to a congressional watchdog. In a new report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said DOE could save “tens of billions of dollars” by abandoning […]

A draft energy and water development bill for fiscal 2023 posted last week by the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee directs the Department of Energy to spend $2 million on a “reindustrialization” study at the Paducah Site in Kentucky. The document did not provide any detail on the scope of the study or when […]

A proposed bill currently awaiting debate in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that would create an independent federal agency to oversee the development of nuclear waste storage sites. The new organization proposed in Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) Nuclear Waste Administration Act would assume all of the nuclear waste management authority given to the […]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted unanimously this week to advance the White House’s nominees to fill out the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the panel said in a press release. If the full Senate gives the green light to Annie Caputo and Bradley Crowell, they will fill two positions on the nuclear safety regulator’s […]

Members of the public interested in how the Department of Energy interpreted community input about siting a federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel may not have to wait much longer, the agency’s nuclear energy chief said this week. A summary of responses to DOE’s November request for information (RFI) on its consent-based process […]

The Government Accountability Office is urging the Department of Energy to provide more details on how its nuclear weapons and cleanup programs handle federal funds carried over from prior-year budgets. At the end of fiscal 2021 the DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) had about $3.2 billion in total carryover balances, and the National Nuclear […]