Despite reservations from at least one lawmaker, there was no move to cut funding for the Department of Energy’s controversial MOX facility Wednesday as the House Appropriations Committee advanced its fiscal 2018 energy and water funding bill to the full House for consideration.
The appropriations legislation would grant $10.2 billion for weapons activities at the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration – including the agency’s warhead life-extension programs, as well as infrastructure and operations. The bill also provides $1.8 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation, an account that features $340 million to continue construction of the MOX facility in South Carolina until the NNSA outlines a viable path forward for its proposed alternative plutonium disposition method.
The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility is being built to convert 34 metric tons of surplus nuclear weapon-usable plutonium into commercial reactor fuel. But the NNSA, under both the Obama and Trump administrations, has tried to cancel the project in favor of what it says is a cheaper and faster option. Congress, so far, has resisted cancellation.
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.), during the full committee markup Wednesday, commented on the MOX project’s “fragile future” and suggested its funding could be diverted to other Energy Department offices facing budget cuts. “We’re all standing here saying we wish we had more money for this program or that . . . yet we’re throwing money at something that has an undetermined future and we need to determine that now,” he said.
The House legislation provides the Energy Department almost $30 billion, representing a decrease of $857.6 million from its current funding level. Of that amount, the National Nuclear Security Administration would receive $13.9 billion, or nearly $1 billion more than its present appropriation.
The committee approved the bill by voice vote following the markup, which resulted in a manager’s amendment making only “technical and noncontroversial changes” to the bill. Some lawmakers raised concerns during the session over the proposed funding increase for NNSA activities and simultaneous cuts to other Energy Department programs.
Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) submitted and withdrew an amendment that proposed moving $921 million from nuclear weapons work to the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, arguing that additional nuclear weapons funding is unnecessary if it is “gutting the [DOE] office responsible for research and application of technology to increase energy efficiency and renewable energy.”
The Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee has not yet released its version of the DOE funding legislation.
