The Senate on Monday approved a 2019 appropriations package that includes a little under $15 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), fully funding development of a new low-yield warhead but coming up short of the administration’s request for nuclear-weapons infrastructure.
The Senate passed the so-called minibus appropriations package 86-5 after a nearly a week of debate. The measure includes $65 million for the NNSA’s share of the work on a new low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic-missile warhead the Donald Trump administration called for in the Nuclear Posture Review released in February.
The Senate’s bill now must be reconciled with the minibus the House passed in May before President Trump can sign the NNSA’s 2019 budget into law. The two chambers had not scheduled the bicameral conference committee that will reconcile the bills at deadline Monday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
[Click here to view the ExchangeMonitor’s National Nuclear Security Administration budget tracker, comparing the White House’s request with Congress’ proposals and the current budget.]
But the Senate bill would provide far less 2019 funding than the administration sought within the infrastructure and operations account that funds maintenance and upgrades of buildings across the NNSA weapons complex. The Senate wants the operations part of the infrastructure and operations budget — the funding to keep lights lit and water running — to receive about 2 percent less funding than the administration requested, or some $874 million.
The Senate’s real break with the administration was to propose much smaller appropriations for a pair of spending lines within infrastructure and operations that can be tapped to fund improvements just about anywhere in the NNSA complex: maintenance and repair of facilities, and recapitalization. The former account, typically for fixing existing infrastructure, would get $250 million, or about 30 percent less than requested. The latter, which generally pays for new infrastructure, would receive $425 million, or some 20 percent less than requested.
In total, the Senate bill would provide about $2.7 billion for infrastructure and operations, or over 8 percent less than the roughly $3 billion the administration requested for the account in 2019. The Senate’s proposal is some 13 percent less than the roughly $3.2 billion the House minibus would provide for infrastructure and operations.
“These reductions are inconsistent with congressional direction to accelerate vital recapitalization and modernization of NNSA’s aging infrastructure and to reduce deferred maintenance,” The Donald Trump administration wrote in a statement of administration policy about the Senate bill.
