The House Rules Committee Tuesday started taking up rules for debating the House Energy & Water Appropriations bill for fiscal 2026.
The measure (H.R. 4553) that passed the House Appropriations Committee in July would provide more than $25 billion for DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) with more money for weapons stockpile modernization and nuclear Navy upgrades, said Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), who chairs the Appropriations Committee’s Energy and Water subcommittee.
The bill would also provide about $8 billion in funding for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. The House Rules Committee had taken no vote as of 5 p.m. Eastern Time.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), the Energy & Water subcommittee’s ranking Democrat also testified. “Sadly, this proposed measure by the Republican majority” does not meet the needs of a country growing toward 350 million people.
Kaptur said she would file a fact sheet with the Rules Committee that shows thousands of people at DOE national laboratories would lose their jobs under the spending plan.
Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) said Sandia National Laboratories is expected to lose 400 people under the proposed spending plan.