The House of Representatives could vote this week on a fiscal 2019 spending bill with about $35.5 billion for the Department of Energy, but some Democrats want to amend the measure to remove funding for a new low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead.
The energy budget bill would be part of an appropriations package — informally called a mini-bus — that also includes spending for the Legislative Branch and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. The House Rules Committee will the set rules of floor debate and consider amendments to the package beginning Tuesday.
One of these amendments, sponsored by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), and Daniel Kildee (D-Mich.), would move the $65 million the House Appropriations Committee approved for the low-yield warhead into DOE’s defense nuclear nonproliferation account.
The Donald Trump administration proposed the low-yield warhead in February in its Nuclear Posture Review. So far, both the House and Senate Appropriations committees have approved funding for the weapon, which would be created by dialing down the yield of some existing W76 warheads that tip the Trident II D5 missiles carried by Ohio-class submarines.
Meanwhile, Nevada Reps. Jacky Rosen and Ruben Kihuen (both D-Nev.) have proposed six amendments to the DOE budget bill aimed at killing the Trump administration’s plan to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear waste repository. The amendments would strip from the bill nearly $268 for proposed Yucca licensing spending at DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and lift a prohibition on using federal funds to shut down the program.
The Trump administration has proposed restarting DOE’s application to license Yucca, which was halted early in the Barack Obama administration. The House has backed the Trump administration, but the Senate has refused to appropriate money for Yucca Mountain.
The Senate had not scheduled its 2019 Energy and Water Appropriations bill for floor debate at deadline Sunday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, but Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said a vote could happen as soon as this week.
