Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Thursday that negotiators from the White House, Senate, and House are close to “sealing a deal” to avoid triggering automatic spending cuts in fiscal 2020.
“We hear that tremendous progress has been made and they have agreed basically in principle,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill. However, he noted that while the negotiating team may appear “real close” to a deal, “you don’t know. Until the deal’s sealed, it’s not sealed.”
In the absence of a deal, Shelby’s committee has not yet issued any appropriations bills for the federal budget year that begins Oct. 1.
The House of Representatives in June passed three “minibus” appropriations bills, including a nearly $1 trillion measure covering the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and other agencies.
Under that legislation, the Energy Department would in total receive $37.1 billion, up by $1.4 billion from current spending and $5.6 billion from the White House request. The department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration would get $15.9 billion, up $665.7 million from the enacted level. Funding for nuclear cleanup managed by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management would remain flat at about $7.2 billion, but that would represent a $706 million spike from the Trump administration request.
The House bill would appropriate $130 million for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, down $95,000 from the present fiscal 2019. Congressional appropriations represent only 10% of the regulator’s annual funding, with the rest coming from licensee fees.
