House lawmakers returning to Washington this week after campaigning at home over the Fourth of July break were set on Wednesday to vote on the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which by and large authorizes all the budget the White House sought for nuclear weapons and waste.
Floor votes were to begin at 12:00 a.m., according to Majority Leader Rep. Steney Hoyer’s (D-Md.) calendar. There were more than a thousand amendments proposed to the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), though the House Rules Committee was poised to pare the number down in a meeting scheduled for Tuesday.
Overall, the 2023 NDAA authorizes about $22 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), about $1 billion more than House appropriators actually approved in a separate bill due for a vote next week. Authorization bills set spending limits and policies for appropriations bills, which are written by separate committees.
Notably, the 2023 NDAA would authorize continued spending on the warhead for a nuclear-tipped sea-launched cruise missile while the 2023 Energy and Water Appropriations Act from the appropriations committee would prohibit funding for that weapon. The Biden administration wanted to cancel the missile.
Meanwhile, for the nuclear-weapons cleanup run by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the 2023 NDAA authorizes roughly the funding White House requested. That includes a last-minute plus-up the White House sought for the Hanford site. House appropriators did not exactly go along with that plan, however.
Editor’s note, July 12, 2022, 10:27 a.m. Eastern time. The story was changed to include the correct date for the scheduled Rules Committee meeting.
