There is a decent chance, perhaps 50/50, of the lame duck session of Congress reaching a deal on a major omnibus appropriations package for fiscal 2021, a Department of Energy-savvy panel of Washington watchers said Thursday.
Both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), hope to pass a 2021 spending package, ideally by the time the current continuing resolution expires Dec. 11, or shortly thereafter, said a Democratic congressional staffer, who works on energy issues on appropriations.
The staffer spoke during an online panel discussion sponsored by the Energy Communities Alliance interest group and the Environmental Council of the States.
The consensus on the panel, which included government affairs specialists for Department of Energy contractors, an attorney, and representatives of the advocacy groups, is that Congress very likely will pass another COVID-19 relief economic recovery measure.
But wildcards include the question of what measures President Donald Trump (R) is willing to sign before presumably turning over the White House to President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20.
Getting President Trump’s signature on a National Defense Authorization Act package could prove tricky, said Bob DeGrasse, Bechtel National’s vice president and manager of government affairs.
Both the Democrat-controlled House and the GOP-majority Senate have passed their own versions of the defense policy bill and the consensus on Thursday’s panel was that a final deal between the two chambers is doable. DeGrasse did not elaborate on Trump’s reluctance but it has been widely reported the president does not want to sign a bill to remove the names of Confederate Civil War officers from U.S. military bases.
There also remains a disagreement about COVID-19 funding to settle between the House and the Senate. The House wants pandemic relief to be included with the regular appropriations bills, while the Senate does not.
In July, the House of Representatives passed a proposal to fund the DOE Office of Environmental Management at roughly the fiscal 2020 level of about $7.5 plus an additional $3 billion for “emergency” spending on shovel ready projects for EM. Shimek appeared to concede, however, that the chances of EM getting the extra money hinge on the full Senate’s willingness to include an economic stimulus dimension to the energy and water proposal.
This, Senate appropriators declined to do this week. The energy and water bill unveiled by the full committee does not include COVID relief for DOE.
“The Committee continues to monitor agency needs directly related to COVID–19 and, to the extent necessary, will seek to address them in future supplemental appropriations vehicles,” reads the report accompanying the Senate committee’s 2021 energy and water appropriations act. “Accordingly, funding provided in the Committee’s regular fiscal year 2021 appropriations bills is focused on annual funding needs unrelated to the COVID–19 pandemic.”
Except for that additional $3 billion, the full House and Senate committee plans are in harmony at keeping the EM topline at roughly the 2020 funding level.
“The numbers are pretty robust” for Environmental Management in both versions, said Tim Peckinpaugh, a partner with the K&L Gates law firm whose practice includes representing companies and communities in DOE nuclear waste issues. The Senate version offers EM about $40 million more and there is some variance from site-to-site. “But The downs and ups are relatively minor,” he said.
A key issue for both the fiscal 2021 spending bill, and a fiscal 2022 budget under a Biden administration, is how DOE money is divided up between EM and the active nuclear weapons programs managed by the agency’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, Peckinpaugh said.
Then there is the matter of who will control the Senate in 2021. “[A]ll eyes are going to be on Georgia” where there will be two special Senate elections in early January to determine which party will be in the majority, said Colin Jones, a vice president and general manager for North American nuclear for DOE contractor Jacobs.
Jones expects there will be some type of stimulus package in the lame duck session. Neither party “wanted to give a victory to either side” prior to the election, Jones said, adding that he hopes such a proposal would extend paid leave for federal contractors who cannot report to their job sites due to COVID-19. Cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus have risen rapidly across the country in November, reaching new highs.
Other things to keep an eye on, starting toward the end of the month, is jockeying over committee and subcommittee leadership. For example, House Appropriations Chair Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) is retiring. Prime contenders for the slot are considered to be Appropriations energy and water subcommittee chair Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.).
Most panelists seemed to agree that a Biden administration will be financially supportive of EM, although the Democrat’s past role in arms control issues might auger significant changes in National Nuclear Security Administration policy.
Plenty of names have been floated in the press for potential secretaries of energy, and DeGrasse thinks Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall is likely “close to the top” to lead DOE in a new administration. She served as a deputy secretary of energy during the Barack Obama administration, where Biden served as vice president. Back in the late 1980s, Sherwood-Randall served as an adviser on defense and foreign policy matters to then-Sen. Biden.
At the same time, no one would be better equipped to help DOE deal with Iran nuclear issues than former Energy Secretary Ernie Moniz, DeGrasse said.
Biden is a longtime Washington insider who will bring people with much experience in national policy and political issues, Jones said.
President Trump, on the other hand, is a businessman and former television show host who has prided himself on his outsider status.
