Nuclear Security & Deterrence Vol. 18 No. 44
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Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

Article 6 of 17

November 14, 2014

House, Senate Appropriators Pushing for Omnibus Spending Package

By Todd Jacobson

Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
11/14/2014

Leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee are pushing ahead on an omnibus spending package, though it remains unclear if there will be enough support for the massive spending bill when the current short-term stopgap spending legislation expires in December. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) have directed staff to complete work on an omnibus package, which would include the Fiscal Year 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, by early December and they seem intent on not settling for a long-term Continuing Resolution, which would fund the government at FY 2014 levels. A short-term CR runs through Dec. 11.

“A CR is an admission that you can’t do anything,” Rogers said this week according to CQ. “I’m hopeful that [conservatives] will understand that this is in their best interest to do it this way. If they don’t, they are going to throw away a lot of good things we’re working on which we have a chance to include in an omnibus that I think they would cherish. To throw that away would be not wise.” At a hearing on emergency funding for ebola, Mikulski also voiced her support for an omnibus rather than a CR. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to deal with really moving what I hope will be an omnibus, and that we, on December 11th, will not be voting on a CR but be voting on an omnibus that meets our fiscal 2015 responsibilities,” Mikulski said.

Starting Off With a Clean Slate?

Some conservatives have raised concerns about passing an omnibus during the lame-duck session and with the Senate poised to shift to Republican control, there is some sentiment to wait until January to complete work on a spending bill. Republicans are also interested in addressing immigration in the bill to deal with the President’s plans. Rogers, however, has continued to push for starting anew after the new year. “I think we need to get old business behind us and start off with a clean slate in January,” Rogers said.

The NNSA weapons program did not receive an anomaly in the current CR to allow it to spend at an increased rate, but Congressional aides expect the White House to push for an exception for the agency if there is a longer-term CR. The Obama Administration requested $8.31 billion for the NNSA’s weapons program in FY 2015, a $533.9 million increase over FY 2014 enacted levels. Spending flexibility allowed the agency to make do during the short-term CR, but programs like the B61 refurbishment could be impacted in a longer-term CR without an anomaly.

Both House and Senate appropriators have been largely supportive of the NNSA’s weapons program, with the Senate Appropriations Committee matching the Administration’s $8.31 billion request and House appropriators providing $8.2 billion, a slight $111 million cut. Senate appropriators provided a major boost to the NNSA’s nonproliferation account, adding $422.8 million to the Administration’s $1.55 billion request.

The NNSA’s nonproliferation account didn’t need a funding anomaly in the short-term CR because the $1.55 billion request for FY 2015 was down $398.4 million from FY 2014, though questions remain about how the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility will be treated under the CR. The Administration requested $221 million for the project in FY 2015, down from the $343.5 million the project received in FY 2014, but House and Senate authorizers and appropriators have pushed for more funding for the program and a continuation of construction.

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Weapons Complex Vol. 25 No. 44
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Weapons Complex Monitor

Article 4 of 11

November 14, 2014

House, Senate Appropriators Pushing for Omnibus Spending Package

By Mike Nartker

Todd Jacobson and Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
11/14/2014

Leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee are pushing ahead on an omnibus spending package for the remainder of this fiscal year, though it remains unclear if there will be enough support for the massive spending bill when the current short-term stopgap spending legislation funding government programs expires in December. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) have directed staff to complete work on an omnibus package, which would include the Fiscal Year 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, by early December and they seem intent on not settling for a long-term Continuing Resolution, which would continue to fund the government at FY 2014 levels.

The current short-term CR runs through Dec. 11. “A CR is an admission that you can’t do anything,” Rogers said this week, according to CQ. “I’m hopeful that [conservatives] will understand that this is in their best interest to do it this way. If they don’t, they are going to throw away a lot of good things we’re working on which we have a chance to include in an omnibus that I think they would cherish. To throw that away would be not wise.”

At a hearing on emergency funding for addressing Ebola, Mikulski also voiced her support for an omnibus rather than a CR. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to deal with really moving what I hope will be an omnibus, and that we, on December 11th, will not be voting on a CR but be voting on an omnibus that meets our fiscal 2015 responsibilities,” Mikulski said.

Starting Off With a Clean Slate?

CR Preventing Layoffs at Portsmouth D&D Project, For Now

Under the CR, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management is being funded at a higher total level than what the Department had sought in its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request. The CR funds cleanup activities at a total of approximately $5.830 billion on an annualized basis. That’s about $200 million more than EM’s budget request for FY 2015, which is approximately $5.6 billion. The CR also includes language intended to help DOE address funding needs at the Portsmouth D&D project and at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. While the Obama Administration had sought anomalies in the CR to obtain additional funding for the two sites, the CR does not include additional funding but does allow the Department to spend more of the provided funding upfront during the CR.

The language in the CR has allowed Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, the D&D contractor at Portsmouth, to push back planned layoffs that could have cut the project’s total workforce by approximately one-third. FBP had based its workforce restructuring plan on an anticipated funding shortfall of approximately $110 million in FY 2015. That shortfall was based, in part, on a drop in the price of uranium, which DOE has provided FBP to help fund cleanup activities at the Portsmouth site. In addition, DOE has announced plans to reduce the amount of excess uranium to be made available to help fund cleanup activities.

FBP Site Project Director Dennis Carr was quoted by the Portsmouth Daily Times newspaper last week, though, as warning that if the contractor did not see signs of getting additional funding by the time the current CR ends, then it may have to proceed with the layoffs. “We postponed all layoff until Dec. 12. But we continue to burn money that we don’t have. At some point in time, we have to say we’re not going to get it (government funding) and have to move forward,” Carr was quoted as saying at a meeting of local officials in Ohio, where the Portsmouth plant is located. “I need something by Dec. 12 that provides us assurance that we’re going to get additional funding. I can’t continue to jeopardize more and more people’s jobs, simply because we’re burning dollars. We’re getting work done, but we are spending dollars right now that I don’t have a guarantee that we have.”

Senate Appropriators Would Provide Funding Boost for EM

The House version of the FY 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, passed this summer, would largely match EM’s total budget request, though House appropriators did not support the Obama Administration’s call to reauthorize payments into the federal uranium enrichment D&D fund, for which the Department had sought $463 million in defense environmental cleanup funding. Senate appropriators, though, looked to provide a significant increase in cleanup funds in their version of the FY15 energy spending bill, which did not make it out of committee. The Senate bill would provide a total of approximately $5.9 billion in cleanup funding, and would back the Administration’s proposal to reauthorize the uranium enrichment D&D fund, as well as provide the requested funding for a federal contribution to the fund.

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