ARLINGTON, VA —A Democrat who co-chairs the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus predicted here Thursday there will be a continuing budget resolution to keep the Department of Energy and the other federal agencies running beyond the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
“We are not going to shut the government down,” Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.) said on the sidelines of the National Cleanup Workshop hosted by the Energy Communities Alliance.
There could be some Republicans in the House of Representatives who might be interested in a shutdown prior to the November midterm elections, Lee said in response to an ExchangeMonitor question.
A continuing resolution would keep DOE’s Office of Environmental Management on the equivalent of fiscal 2022’s $7.6-billion on a proportional basis, with the exception of any specified exceptions.
Lee was introduced by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), who like Lee is a member of the House Appropriations Committee. Fleischmann said he sought out Lee to co-chair the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus after the Democrats’ former co-chair, Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) was elected to the Senate in 2020.
Such caucuses provide an opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to “get in a room, close the door and be nice to each other.”
Lee, whose district includes DOE’s Nevada National Security Site, told the conference she is encouraged by action by the state of Nevada this week to permanently end federal licensing proceedings for a spent fuel disposal repository at Yucca Mountain. “Yucca Mountains is always the big white elephant in the room.”
The governor of Nevada filed a motion to get Yucca Mountain “off the table,” Lee said. It is “starting over again” with potential host communities that are open to such a site, the lawmaker said.
