The Donald Trump administration rolled out its very high-level budget proposal for fiscal 2027 this Friday, April 3, which includes $8.2-billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), which would be a haircut of $386 million.
It should be noted that in recent years House and Senate Appropriators have been willing to beef up the DOE nuclear cleanup budget for Cold Ward and Manhattan Project sites as the plan moves through Congress.
The White House request includes $3 billion to continue cleanup progress at the Hanford site in Washington state. The spending plan reflects “a strategic focus on near-term, critical path cleanup milestones,” according to the document. “For example: Reductions focus on operating the new Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste Facility to reduce liability rather than accumulating unobligated balances for partially-designed facilities.”
The fiscal 2027 request seeks $53.9 billion in discretionary budget authority for DOE, a $4.8 billion or nearly 10% increase from the 2026 enacted level excluding the Working Families Tax Cut Act, according to the document. Fiscal 2026 ends Sept. 30.
As is typical, the lion’s share of the spending, $32.8 billion, will go to DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The proposed spending for NNSA is $3.6 billion, or 12%, more than what the agency in charge of maintaining the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile received last year.
The budget request will be sent to Congress, currently in recess until mid-April. A more detailed request will be released April 21, Pentagon officials told Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily.
The high-level request and its fact sheet, both posted on the White House website, said the budget will provide NNSA with funding for “producing a robust, credible, and modern nuclear deterrent that protects the American people.”
Additional budget coverage will be available in coming days in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.