Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) hopes to remain chairman of the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee when the next Congress convenes in January, a staffer confirmed.
The longtime lawmaker has held the post since 2015.
There was no word Tuesday on whether Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) expects to stay on as her party’s ranking member on the subcommittee.
Alexander’s panel prepares the annual first draft of the Senate funding bill that covers the Department of Energy, its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, among other agencies. He is a strong supporter of DOE cleanup at the Oak Ridge Reservation in his home state, along with active nuclear weapons operations at the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge. He and Feinstein have been particularly focused on ensuring the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 is built by 2025 for no more than $6.5 billion.
The Senate Appropriations energy and water panel zeroed out the Trump administration’s request for nearly $170 million in fiscal 2019 at DOE and the NRC to revive licensing of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The Senate had its way in negotiations on the matter with the House, which had proposed $270 million.
In the prior two Congresses, Alexander and Feinstein were among the co-sponsors of bills intended to break the long deadlock on disposal of spent fuel from U.S. nuclear power reactors. Rather than promote Yucca Mountain, they called for consent-based siting for disposal and establishing an independent agency to manage the process. Neither bill passed Congress and there was no iteration in the 115th Congress that is just days away from ending.
There have been rumors of a funding proposal for Yucca Mountain in the appropriations bill needed to keep the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies open past Dec. 21. Nothing has been confirmed, and President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened a partial government shutdown if the bill does not provide money for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Energy Department, NNSA, and NRC already have full-year fiscal 2019 funding through Sept. 30.
