Disagreement between the Energy and Water subcommittee chair and ranking member over the topline of their appropriations bill has led to it not being released yet, according to an article by Politico E&E News.
The Senate has not yet brought a version of the bill to even a subcommittee level markup.
The article said the topline, agreed upon by the full committee’s respective chair and ranking member, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Patty Murray (D-Wash), would be 3% higher than the currently enacted level of $58.2 billion in discretionary spending for Energy and Water, putting the 2026 topline at around $59.9 billion.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), chair of the subcommittee, reportedly said he was rejecting a funding increase in lieu of cuts to renewable energy programs, and that a 3% raise was too steep. The funding increase was negotiated by Collins and Murray, who is also the ranking member of the Energy and Water subcommittee.
Collins reportedly denied Kennedy’s allegations to Politico.
Meanwhile, the House’s Energy and Water bill has already passed the full committee in July, and would give $48.8 billion to the Department of Energy and $25.3 billion to DOE’s semi-autonomous agency in charge of managing the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile, the National Nuclear Security Administration. The House bill’s topline is also $2.7 billion lower than the Senate’s.
The Senate Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee has had one hearing with Secretary of Energy Chris Wright in May wherein members inquired about DOE’s budget, which Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) called an “awful skinny” outline.