Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) expects the full House of Representatives to take up the fiscal 2027 Energy & Water Development appropriations bill next week.
“We will go to the floor next week.” Fleischmann told the annual meeting of the Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
The lawmaker, whose district adjoins the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation, did not list a specific date when the floor vote is expected to take place.
In May the full House Appropriations Committee voted 34-25 to pass its version of the fiscal 2027 spending bill for DOE and other agencies.
The bill that passed House Appropriations would include $1.8 billion to the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy and $892.3 million to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. For DOE’s Office of Environmental Management it gives $7.7 billion, which less than the $8.2 billion requested by the Donald Trump White House and less than the $8.5 billion enacted by Congress for fiscal 2026.
The same bill would also fund DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at $27 billion. That is nearly $1.7 billion more than what NNSA received from Congress in fiscal 2026 but $6 billion less than the White House sought for the agency in charge of managing the nation’s national nuclear weapons stockpile.
“Dollars are tight,” Fleischmann said. But he said the funding package he helped craft as chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee for Energy and Water still supports defense nuclear cleanup, the nuclear weapons stockpile and advanced commercial nuclear reactors.
“The reality is we need more electricity in the country, the demand is booming,” Fleischmann said. While the congressman also likes coal and natural gas, “we need nuclear. …All across the country we are bringing back shuttered nuclear power plants” in places like Michigan and Pennsylvania, he said. He also pointed to the Clinch River small modular reactor being planned by the Tennessee Valley Authority near Oak Ridge.
Praised upcoming advanced reactors like Clinch River Hitachi for TVA.
EFCOG is a major industry group representing contractors serving primarily DOE’s nuclear weapons complex.