The Senate Thursday passed a minibus bill 82-15 that includes appropriations for Energy and Water development, which would provide more than $8.4 billion to the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and $25.4 billion in funds to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
The measure includes $3.2 billion for ongoing remediation of DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington state, where 67 tons of plutonium was made for the nation’s nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War, Gov. Bob Ferguson (D) said in a Thursday press release.
The $3.2 billion represents $200 million more than Congress has appropriated for the site in the past couple of years, Ferguson said in the release posted by the Washington state Department of Ecology.
“With this funding, Hanford’s most crucial projects can advance, ensuring we can continue to protect surrounding communities and the Columbia River,” Washington Ecology’s director Casey Sixkiller said in the same release.
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), who chairs the House Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee, took to the X social media platform to say that the legislation keeps DOE’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee at the “epicenter” of the nuclear revival.
The Office of Management and Budget issued a statement of support for the minibus last week, indicating President Donald Trump will sign the bill when it reaches his desk.
“This package saves a key program to save families on their energy bills, sustains our investments in scientific research, and protects essential funding for our public lands and Tribes, among so much else,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of both the full Senate Appropriations Committee and the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, said in a statement Thursday. “Passing these bills reasserts Congress’ power of the purse and will prevent this administration from having the legal authority to decide for itself how to spend these taxpayer funds again.”
The bill was released by top appropriators in the Senate and House last week on both sides of the aisle, and was passed 397-28 in the House Jan. 8. Congress has until Jan. 30 to either get all twelve spending plans passed or pass another stopgap spending bill, lest the government shut down again due to a lapse in funding.