Department of Energy defense nuclear programs would be held at their 2020 budgets through Dec. 11, under a short-term continuing resolution the House of Representatives unveiled Monday.
The House Rules Committee approved the parameters of debate for the bill on Monday evening. The House had not scheduled a floor vote at deadline Tuesday, but Democrats who control the chamber said the vote could happen this week. The Senate would then have to approve the measure and send it to President Donald Trump for a signature in order to avert a government shutdown on Sept. 30 — something pundits view as highly unlikely, if not impossible, in a high-stakes presidential election year.
The bill would also extend section 3610 of the CARES act, which lets contractors bill the government for paid time off given to workers who couldn’t do their job because of COVID-19, to Dec. 11. It had been set to end Sept. 30.
Not long after the bill text appeared Monday, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the majority leader, complained on Twitter that the “rough draft” spending measure “leaves out key relief and support that American farmers need.”
The publication CQ, reported that the bill lacks a Republican-favored $30-billion infusion for the federal Commodity Credit Corporation, which provides income assistance and other payments for farmers. A McConnell spokesperson did not reply to a question about whether the majority leader would insist on an amendment in the Senate to provide the payment.
The continuing resolution is clean, from the DOE’s perspective, and would keep the budget for legacy nuclear weapons cleanup programs managed by the agency’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) at the annualized level of $7.45 billion, or $1.3 billion more than requested, and the budget for active nuclear weapons programs managed by DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at the equivalent of $16.7 billion, which is some $3 billion less than the roughly $20 billion requested.
For the NNSA, the continuing resolution depresses the 2021 budget below even the $18 billion the House of Representatives approved for fiscal year 2021: a level that a senior Pentagon official last week testified could delay the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb refurbishment. The continuing resolution also effectively denies a White House request to allow spending on the proposed W93 submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead: a weapon that could be leveraged for the United Kingdom as well as the U.S. navy.
On the other hand, the stopgap bill would allow the Navy to fund construction of two Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines: the replacement for the Ohio-class boats. The first Columbia is supposed to set said in the early 2030s.
Meanwhile, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, which handles the still-stalled licensing process for the proposed dual-stream, civil-military Yucca Mountain repository, and other nuclear waste programs, would get $156 million under the continuing resolution: some $28 million below the request. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which regulates civilian nuclear power plants and the waste they generate, would get the equivalent of $855 million or so, about $10 million below the 2021 request.
