The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed the final version of the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, clearing the way for President Donald Trump to sign a bill that would tighten congressional oversight of the Hanford Site in Washington state and allow the Department of Energy to build a low-yield nuclear warhead.
The $717 billion bill sailed through on an 87-10 vote, less than a week after the House approved the bicameral compromise version of the measure. The legislation sets spending limits and policy for defense programs for the budget year beginning Oct. 1, including the entire National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) portfolio and most of the Cold War-nuclear-cleanup managed by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.
The White House had not issued a statement of administration policy about the bill at deadline Wednesday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. The administration griped about certain provisions in both the House and Senate versions of the NDAA earlier this year, but made no veto threats.
For the NNSA, the bill authorizes appropriations of $15 billion. It would allow the DOE branch to spend $65 million to create a low-yield, submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead by modifying an unspecified number of existing W76 warheads. The warhead tips Trident II-D5 missiles carried by Ohio-class submarines.
The bill would also authorize the NNSA to spend $220 million to build the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The agency wants to cancel construction and turn the plant into a factory for fissile nuclear-weapon cores called plutonium pits. The pits are a key part of the overall U.S. nuclear modernization mission.
The NDAA authorizes more than $5.5 billion in defense environmental cleanup funding for the Environmental Management office. That spending line makes up most of the cleanup steward’s annual budget. If signed, the bill would require DOE to speedily notify Congress of any reported airborne contamination, radioactive or hazardous, at the Hanford Site.