While there is a “remote” chance the full House of Representatives could vote on the fiscal 2027 Energy & Water Appropriations bill, it is more likely that the measure won’t be taken up until September, a key House Appropriator said Wednesday.
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn) who chairs the House Appropriations Energy & Water Subcommittee, made the remarks in Washington, D.C. before the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus forum on isotopes.
In May, the House Appropriations Committee passed the bill 34-25. The bill, which must still be voted upon by the full House, would fund the DOE Office of Environmental Management at $7.7 billion, less than the $8.5 billion enacted by Congress for fiscal 2026. The House is scheduled to go on recess at the end of July and stay out for most of August. The fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
Retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Frederick Roegge has joined Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Mission Technologies division as vice president of operations for its Nuclear and Environmental team, the company announced Tuesday.
In the role, Roegge will oversee the company’s subsidiary HII Nuclear’s management and operation of Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration sites, as well as the execution of complex production and environmental remediation projects. He also will help leverage the company’s “decades of nuclear fabrication experience” to support government and commercial nuclear initiatives, according to a Tuesday press release by HII.
“Bringing exceptional leaders onto our team is one of the most important investments we can make in our future,” Michael Lempke, president of Mission Technologies’ Global Security group, said in the release. “Admiral Roegge’s unmatched experience in nuclear operations and national security will enhance the critical services we deliver, expand our capabilities in nuclear management and operations, and position us for continued growth across our portfolio.”
While advocates are thankful Congress expanded the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) in 2025, they said Tuesday last year’s action did not go far enough.
As a result, James Moylan (R-Guam), a non-voting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, and other House members representing atomic veterans and downwinders, plan to propose another RECA expansion within days, they said during a press conference Tuesday.
A version of the RECA expansion in the One Big, Beautiful Bill, did not include Guam partly because some members of Congress did not realize Guam is part of the United States, Moylan said during the press conference.
Senate Democrats on Tuesday blocked a vote to advance consideration of the chamber’s $1.14 trillion fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization (NDAA).
The procedural vote was 46-50, failing to reach the 60 votes needed to move forward, with Democrats having cited opposition to supporting the defense policy legislation amid the Trump administration’s ongoing military action against Iran. The vote on the motion to involve cloture fell along party lines, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) changed his vote from “yes” to “no” to allow him to reintroduce a motion to reconsider the bill again at a later date. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), ranking member on the Armed Services Committee, also cited concern in a statement with the significant defense topline increase authorized in the fiscal ’27 NDAA and said he “cannot vote to proceed to a bill that enables an ongoing war against Iran that Congress never authorized.”
The Senate’s failure to move forward on the NDAA follows a House procedural vote on its version of the bill that failed ahead of the July 4th recess, following a series of GOP defections regarding a back and forth over attaching the voter ID-focused SAVE America Act to the defense policy legislation.
Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) raised concerns at a committee hearing on Tuesday about the majority of funds in the $153 billion first reconciliation bill being unobligated thus far and on the lack of updates from the Pentagon on the costs of the Iranian conflict.
In May last year, the White House suggested that $119.3 billion of the $153 billion for defense in the first reconciliation bill would be spent in fiscal year 2026, which ends on Sept. 30. SASC Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said during Tuesday’s hearing that “there is some dissatisfaction on the part of Congress about the slow rates of obligation of funds provided for in reconciliation.”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) also noted at the hearing that “a bunch of that $153 billion has not been obligated,” and that “the records that we got from the Pentagon that were current through July 2 suggest that $68 billion has been obligated, but $89 billion of it has not been obligated.”