Defense Environmental Cleanup, the largest tranche of funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, could receive almost $7 billion under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2026.
The final version of the NDAA was released Monday after a House and Senate Conference Committee harmonized differences between the earlier NDAA versions emerging from the two chambers.
According to the document’s text, Defense Environmental Cleanup would be authorized to receive about $6.96 billion. That is equal to the White House request.
The figure allowed in the House-Senate NDAA is more than the $6.5-billion the House approved in September in its Energy & Water Appropriations bill. The Senate has yet to pass its own version of the appropriations bill for fiscal 2026.
The NDAA is a policy bill rather than an appropriations bill, although it does set ceilings on how much can be spent. Lawmakers for the two branches of Congress must still vote to approve the compromise version of the NDAA.
Defense Environmental Cleanup funding is used for remediation of Cold War and Manhattan Project sites. The line item makes up the bulk of the annual Environmental Management (EM) budget.
Following a month-long government shutdown, Congress passed a continuing resolution that runs through Jan. 30, 2026.