The House appropriations subcommittee on energy and water passed a fiscal 2026 appropriations bill 10-5 Monday 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.
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.
The bill now goes to be marked up and considered by the full appropriations committee Thursday at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.
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 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.
Subcommittee ranking member Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) criticized the further cuts to the nonproliferation account, which she called a “gift” to adversaries like China, Iran and Russia. 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.”
