The House appropriations committee voted to advance a fiscal 2026 appropriations bill Thursday that would give $25.317 billion to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
That’s around $1.182 billion above the fiscal 2025 levels, although the funding for the Department of Energy as a whole is $1.396 billion below 2025 levels at $48.774 billion.
The appropriations bill was passed 35-27 in the House committee and now moves to the full House for markup.
NNSA’s funding is also $100 million less than the House Armed Services Committee would authorize in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the agency, and about $60 million more than what the White House requested for fiscal 2026.
Chairman Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), whose district abuts the Y-12 National Security Complex and the Uranium Processing Facility (UPF), praised the bill at Monday’s subcommittee markup for “prioritizing the continued modernization of the nuclear weapons stockpile and the U.S. Navy nuclear fleet.” Chairman of the full committee Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said the bill would be good for “restoring our deterrence and restoring our readiness” if passed.
Of the $25.3 billion, $20.66 billion would go to weapons activities, or modernization of the nuclear weapons stockpile, which is about $100 million more than the NDAA would set the limit for and about $600 million more than the White House requested.
The U.S. Navy’s nuclear fleet, which would include naval reactors and the Columbia-class submarine nuclear reactor development, would receive $2.17 billion. That’s about $150 million more than the NDAA authorized but a little less than $200 million less than the White House requested.
Perhaps most controversial was defense nuclear nonproliferation, or the account responsible for reducing the risk that adversaries could acquire nuclear materials. Defense nuclear nonproliferation would get $1.98 billion in the energy and water bill, which is about $300 million less than the NDAA authorized and the White House requested. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said this was a cut of about 17%.
Subcommittee ranking member Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) criticized the further cuts to the nonproliferation account, which she called “all a big gift” to adversaries like China, Iran and Russia, at both the Monday and Thursday markup. Full committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) similarly said the bill “undermines the very programs that help us stop the spread of nuclear weapons, detect nuclear activity, and uphold arms control efforts that make America and the world safer.” Rep. Frank Mrvan (D-Ind.) also criticized the cuts “at a time when our adversaries are investing in their nuclear arsenals.”
Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district abuts the Hanford site, praised the bill’s prioritization of Hanford cleanup and the numbers for the defense nuclear nonproliferation account. “It is imperative that funding continue for the DNN” to globally stop state and nonstate actors from developing nuclear weapons, Newhouse said. However, he said the bill “provides nearly $2 billion for this purpose,” seemingly implying he thought that was sufficient.
The bill’s summary said it provides “additional funding” for plutonium pit production, UPF, and the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) warhead program. The summary also said the bill would prohibit Chinese and Russian nationals from accessing nuclear weapons facilities and prohibit the DOE from either purchasing equipment from or providing financial assistance to adversaries.
Notably, the bill also includes $8.4 billion for the Office of Science at the DOE, which would go toward the National Laboratories, in what Fleischmann said would “ensure taxpayer resources are focused on the highest priority, research and development projects” and Newhouse also applauded. That number is $160 million above the numbers for fiscal 2025, and was a point of concern at a recent Senate hearing in June with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.