Congress could unveil the final version of the Department of Energy’s 2019 budget this week, according to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
The House could consider the conference report to accompany H.R. 5859, the 2019 Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, on Thursday, according to McCarthy’s website. The conference committee for the bill is due to meet at 2:30 p.m. today.
The conference report — which has not yet been made public — is a joint House-Senate document resolving the different spending proposals the two chambers proposed for the Department of Energy in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Both chambers must approve the report before President Donald Trump can sign the underlying bill into law.
The House proposed about $30.5 billion for DOE in 2019, while the Senate proposed roughly $30 billion. Within that total, the House proposed $15.3 billion for DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA), which modernizes and maintains U.S. nuclear weapons, while the Senate proposed about $14.8 billion.
The House and Senate agree on funding for most major DOE nuclear weapons and waste programs, though they must settle major differences on how much money to spend in fiscal 2019 on fixing up buildings and facilities used for active arms programs managed by the NNSA. Specifically, the Senate proposed $250 million for NNSA’s maintenance and repair of facilities budget, and some $425 million for the agency’s recapitalization budget: respectively, about 30 percent and 20 percent less than the White House requested. The House proposed increases of about 40 percent and 13 percent, respectively, over the request.
The chambers are also far apart on the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository in Nye County, Nev. The House proposed some $270 million for DOE and Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing work for the proposed waste site. The Senate recommended no funding for Yucca in 2019, just as it did for 2018 — and the Senate got its way last year.
On the other hand, the House and Senate are largely on the same page when it comes to the Cold War nuclear-cleanup programs run by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management; both chambers recommended about $7 billion for the office in 2019.
There would be as of Wednesday only 11 more legislative sessions scheduled in Congress before the end of the 2018 fiscal year. Any agencies that do not get a signed appropriations bill in that time frame would shut down on Oct. 1, unless Congress passes stopgap spending measures to extend 2018 budgets temporarily.
