The House of Representatives is set to debate a 2019 Department of Energy budget bill today, including amendments that would cut or reshuffle funding for the agency’s nuclear waste and weapons programs.
Among these is an amendment offered by a cadre of Democratic lawmakers to cut $65 million in funding for a low-yield nuclear warhead the Donald Trump administration wants National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to build starting in the next budget year. The amendment would steer the proposed funding for the warhead into the NNSA’s defense nonproliferation account.
The warhead, to be a modified version of the W76 already used on Trident II D5 missiles carried by Ohio-class submarines, has become among the most politically contentious issues for the NNSA this year. So far in budget appropriations and authorization debates, it has survived rigid opposition that comes mostly from Democrats.
Also within the NNSA, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) proposed an amendment to shift around $100 million in proposed funding to the agency’s nonproliferation program from its defense programs. The defense programs office handles active weapon programs, including four big-ticket efforts to lengthen the lifespan of three nuclear warheads and one nuclear bomb.
Also up for debate as part of the proposed $35 billion 2019 Department of Energy (DOE) budget is an amendment to defund the Trump administration’s plan to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear waste repository.
Reps. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Dina Titus (D-Nev.) Ruben Kihuen (D-Nev.) — the last of whom is departing Congress after this year amid sexual harassment allegations — offered an amendment to delete $190 million in proposed Yucca funding intended for DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The three lawmakers separately offered an amendment that would lift a legal prohibition on using federal funds to cancel Yucca altogether.
Floor debate of the bill and its amendments is set to begin at 9 a.m., with a vote no later than 3 p.m. or so. Overall, the measure would provide a little over $15 billion for NNSA and around $7 million for Cold War nuclear cleanup managed by the Department of Energy’s Environmental Management office.
