In the wee hours of Wednesday morning House appropriators unveiled, and the Joe Biden administration said it would sign, a bipartisan omnibus 2022 budget bill that would slightly raise budgets for Department of Energy defense nuclear programs.
The measure also includes emergency aid for Ukraine, which Russia invaded on Feb. 24. Fiscal year 2022 ends Sept. 30. The government has operated since Oct. 1 at 2021 spending levels, under a series of stopgap budget bills.
Under the fiscal year 2022 omnibus, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) would receive $20.65 billion, a year-over-year increase of about 4.5%, or more than $920 million, and about 3%, or more than $575 million, above the Joe Biden administration’s 2022 request. Within NNSA, the Weapons Activities budget that funds active nuclear weapons programs would go up about 3.5% year-over-year to about $15.9 billion, which is not quite 3% more than the request.
DOE’s Office of Environmental Management would see its 2022 budget settle at just under $7.9 billion, up nearly $300 million year-over-year and roughly in line with the White House’s request for the part of the agency that cleans up shuttered nuclear-weapons production sites.
DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, responsible for safe storage and disposal of radioactive waste from civilian nuclear power plants, would receive 1.65 billion, some $140 million more than the 2021 budget but $200 million below the 2022 request of 1.85 billion.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal overseer for civilian nuclear power plants, would get about $874 million in the omnibus, though that would be offset by some $745 million in fees the agency is expected to collect in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 from the plants it regulates. The overall NRC appropriation for 2022 would be up about $34 million compared with the 2021 budget.
