Two amendments dealing with the National Nuclear Security Administration were agreed to and two anti-nuclear amendments failed during a 2025 appropriations debate Tuesday on the House floor.
The 2025 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, H.R. 8997, reached the House floor Tuesday, but lawmakers ended their day without a vote on the bill, which passed the House Appropriations Committee in early July on an essentially party-line vote.
By a voice vote that was not challenged, the House approved an amendment by Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), whose district includes the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, that would prohibit the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) from using funds to halt construction of a high explosive facility in Pantex.
Meanwhile, Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), who this month announced he was diagnosed with cancer, had two amendments on the floor to reduce what Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), speaking on Garamendi’s behalf, called “wasteful, unnecessary expenditures.”
One of these amendments would have prohibited funding toward the W87-1 air-launched cruise-missile warhead and another would have prohibited funding upgrades for plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site. Both amendments failed by voice vote.
Outside of the NNSA, an amendment by Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), to prohibit funds from reinstating licenses for the U.S. to export nuclear material to China, was also agreed to by voice vote.