Federal agencies including the Energy Department will remain funded at fiscal 2016 levels through at least the first two months of President-elect Donald Trump’s term, Republican congressional leaders decided this week.
“To this end, my Committee will begin working immediately on a Continuing Resolution (CR) at the current rate of funding to extend the operations of our government through March 31, 2017,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) wrote in a Thursday press release.
A fiscal 2017 stopgap spending bill signed in late September that froze the DOE budget at 2016 levels is set to expire Dec. 9. Congress has until then to pass the next short-term spending measure, which likewise will preserve spending levels at the level of the budget year that ended on Sept. 30.
Such a bill would keep the Energy Department funded at an annualized level of about $29.5 billion, almost 10 percent less than the 2017 request. Legacy nuclear cleanup overseen by the agency’s Office of Environmental Management would get about $6.1 billion, some 1.5 percent above the 2017 request. Nuclear weapons and other programs administered by the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration will receive about $12.5 billion in annualized funding, or nearly 3 percent less than requested.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, regulator for commercial nuclear power plants and civilian nuclear waste, would get roughly $1 billion, or about 2 percent more than the 2017 request.
Spending totals for DOE legacy cleanup and weapons accounts do not vary wildly between the White House’s request and the continuing resolution. However, ExchangeMonitor analyses of the DOE Environmental Management budget and the National Nuclear Security Administration budget reveal some significant puts and takes that will need to be made soon, if work is to continue in 2017 as the outgoing Obama administration envisioned.
At a high level, postponing a final fiscal 2017 appropriations bill gives Republicans in Congress the opportunity to negotiate federal spending priorities for the final six months of fiscal 2017 with a Republican administration.
It will also buy the incoming Trump administration some time to work on spending priorities for the 2018 fiscal year. Nominally, the White House must release its budget request for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 by the first Monday in February. In reality, presidents of both parties often blow the deadline as they tinker with their recommendations for what has become about $4 trillion in annual federal spending.
It remains to be seen whether the Energy Department and the rest of the federal government will get a final appropriations bill for fiscal 2017. Congress and the new administration could choose to extend 2016 spending levels through Sept. 30 and focus their energy on a budget for next year that is dominated by Republican priorities and shaped by the Trump White House.
