The House Appropriations Committee this week recommended funding the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board at $41.4 million in fiscal 2023, the amount sought by the Joe Biden administration and over $5 million more than the federal nuclear watchdog received for fiscal 2022.
The funding plan, approved Tuesday by the committee in a party-line vote, was detailed in the Energy and Water Development subcommittee’s bill report published Monday.
The proposed funding increase is to help the safety watchdog increase its staffing level to about 120 people by the end of the 2023 fiscal year.
Created by the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 1989, the five-member Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) and its staff are charged with making independent safety policy recommendations to DOE for its nuclear defense sites.
The House had not scheduled a vote on the 2023 energy and water development appropriations act as of Friday.
Meanwhile, the House Armed Services Committee last week approved a 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that authorizes the Biden administration’s requested budget for DNFSB and also allows the chairperson of the agency to assume the board’s duties for as long as a year if the agency cannot maintain its quorum of three members. The full house had yet to vote on the bill, as of Friday.
