Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and the acting chief of DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, Charles Verdon, were to face questions from a Senate Appropriations Committee panel at 10 a.m. for the first time since the Joe Biden administration rolled out its Department of Energy budget request for fiscal 2022.
The hearing by the Appropriations subcommittee for Energy and Water Development can be viewed online here. It was scheduled to begin after deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
While the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) would be relatively flat-funded this year at $20 billion, the Biden administration is seeking about a 12% reduction for its civilian nuclear weapons programs.
The Biden White House seeks almost $7.6 billion for the DOE Office of Environmental Management for the budget year starting Oct. 1. That is incrementally more than the $7.5 billion enacted by Congress for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30.
In a hearing last week before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Granholm was questioned over a proposed $100-million haircut for the Hanford Site in Washington state, the nuclear cleanup office’s most costly remediation project, as well as curtailed payments for schools and other services — payment in lieu of taxes — around Hanford and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
Prior to her appearance before the Senate panel, Granholm praised the Senate’s Tuesday confirmation of Ali Nouri by voice vote to serve as DOE’s assistant secretary for congressional and Intergovernmental affairs.
“As both a scientist and a proven consensus-builder, Ali will bring unparalleled perspective and expertise to his work with Congress and our federal, state, and local government partners,” Granholm said in a press release.
Nouri joined the administration in January as the principal deputy assistant secretary in DOE’s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs. Before that, he was the president of the Federation of American Scientists, an organization focused on issues such as countering weapons of mass destruction and emerging infectious diseases.
