March 17, 2014

HOUSE ENERGY AND WATER PANEL CLEARS FY13 SPENDING BILL

By ExchangeMonitor

The House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee cleared its version of the Fiscal Year 2013 Energy and Water Appropriations Act yesterday, but details of the legislation continue to be hard to come by. The panel has released top-line numbers for the bill, but has revealed scant information about funding levels for specific programs and projects and won’t until next week, when the full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up the bill. Among the exceptions was a statement by subcommittee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) that the panel was providing $100 million provided to “support new uranium enrichment activities,” a nod to the Obama Administration’s $150 million request for NNSA nonproliferation research and development funding for USEC’s American Centrifuge Project. Frelinghuysen declined to explain the subcommittee’s decision after yesterday’s markup. The bill also provides $35 million for Yucca Mountain, including $25 million to “move the project forward,” according to Frelinghuysen, as well as language that would prohibit “activities which would keep the facility from being unusable” in the future. “The recommendation denies funding for Blue Ribbon Commission activities which need authorization,” Frelinghuysen said. “Research and development activities which do not need authorization and are to support Yucca Mountain are permitted. This policy will ensure that we keep Congress in the driver’s seat for nuclear waste policy, not the Administration.”

Frelinghuysen also hinted at several increases within the NNSA account. While appropriators matched the Administration’s $7.58 billion request for the agency’s weapons program, Frelinghuysen said the bill increases funding for the W76 life extension program, which likely reflects additional funds needed for the program. Frelinghuysen also said that the agency’s “core” nonproliferation programs, like the International Material Protection, Control and Accounting Program and the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, received a boost in the bill, though the legislation cuts $176 million from the Administration’s $2.46 billion request for FY2013 nonproliferation work. The cuts are believed to be made up by reductions in funding for the USEC R&D program and the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility.

For DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the bill includes approximately $5.55 billion, down $106 million from DOE’s request. The bill includes proposed funding cuts for defense environmental cleanup activities, which covers most major EM sites, along with uranium enrichment D&D efforts. For defense environmental cleanup work, the bill would provide approximately $4.92 billion, a cut of approximately $100 million from the request.

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