On Thursday, after a two-week squabble about who to elect as speaker, the House of Representatives passed a bill to fund defense and civilian nuclear nuclear programs for the rest of fiscal year 2024, including $8.3-billion for the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch.
Civilian nuclear programs at DOE and elsewhere would essentially remain flat under the House’s bill. Active nuclear weapons programs would get a boost. The Senate this week brought a package of spending bills to the floor, though none include funding for DOE nuclear programs.
The House’s 2024 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act passed on what was almost a party-line vote; one Republican joined all House Democrats in voting no. The House passed the bill a day after the chamber’s GOP majority unanimously elected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as speaker.
The House and Senate still have to reconcile their competing energy and water spending bills, which differ wildly in top-line spending for the entire Department of Energy but are relatively similar when it comes to defense and civilian nuclear weapons programs in and out of the department.
Under the House bill just passed, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, responsible for cleanup of shuttered nuclear-weapons production sites, would receive the requested $8.3 billion for 2024 under the House’s bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee, chaired by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) has proposed $8.5 for the office, with increased spending for the Hanford Site in Washington State accounting for the difference.
Both the full House and the Senate committee have proposed a roughly $2-billion raise, to $24 billion, for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear-weapons programs. The House bill, written by a subcommittee chaired by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (D-Tenn.) proposed $1 billion for the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The Senate Appropriations Committee proposed the requested $760 million for the facility.
Meanwhile, federal agencies are now funded at the annualized equivalents of their 2023 levels until Nov. 18 under a stopgap spending bill passed in early October. The House and Senate have yet to reconcile the differing versions of the 12 annual budget bills that fund the entire government.
Even with a new speaker, House Republicans, who want big federal spending cuts overall, face the same obstacle as the previous speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.): Democrats in the Senate and White House who want the federal government to spend as much money as allowed by a law passed in spring to extend the government’s ability to borrow money.
