The sitting leaders of the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee plan to remain in place when the next Congress convenes in January.
Staffers for both subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) confirmed their bosses’ intentions this week.
Alexander has held the post since 2015, taking over from Feinstein after Democrats lost their Senate majority in the 2014 midterm elections.
A Feinstein staffer said he was not sure when the upper chamber’s Appropriations subcommittees will make their formal leadership announcements.
The energy and water subcommittee prepares the annual first draft of the Senate appropriations bill that covers the Department of Energy, its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, among other agencies. For the current fiscal 2019, the panel proposed roughly $15 billion for the NNSA and $7.2 billion for DOE’s nuclear cleanup operation – spending amounts that survived congressional scrutiny and were signed into law in September.
Alexander is a strong supporter of the NNSA’s mission at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. He and Feinstein have been particularly focused on ensuring the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 is built by 2025 for no more than $6.5 billion.
Overall, the November midterm election left the Senate GOP with a slightly larger majority than it previously enjoyed. Republicans will hold 53 of the 100 seats in January, a net gain of two from the current breakdown.
