The federal government reopened Tuesday following a three-day shutdown, after Senate Democrats largely dropped their opposition to a stopgap budget bill to keep agencies open through Feb. 8.
President Donald Trump signed the bill late Monday evening after it quickly passed through both chambers of Congress. The measure funds the Department of Energy (DOE) at fiscal 2017 levels, but allows the agency’s Inspector General’s Office to exceed prior-year spending to maintain its current headcount.
Under the stopgap, the fourth of the 2018 fiscal year that began Oct. 1, DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) again received the annualized equivalent of $13 billion. The Trump administration requested $14 billion for the agency in fiscal 2018, and Congress appeared willing to grant the request before budget negotiations broke down this summer and forced legislators to use bridge funding bills known as continuing resolutions to keep the government operating.
Last year, the government ran on stopgap budget bills until early May: more than half of the fiscal year. Continuing resolutions are potentially disruptive for agencies because they freeze all spending levels, even those due for long-projected increases for scheduled construction or operations ramp-ups. Agencies also may not start new projects under a continuing resolution.
The Energy Department did not clarify whether it had instructed any civil servants or contractors not to report to work Monday because of the shutdown. A DOE spokesperson in Washington said the agency had been “open for business,” despite the shutdown.
Under the continuing resolution, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will again take home the annualized equivalent of $1 billion. That is a bit more than the Trump administration sought for fiscal 2018.
On Monday, the NRC said it had adequate carry-over funding from the prior fiscal year to sustain routine operations in the absence of federal appropriations, The agency, which regulates civilian nuclear power and waste operations, did not say how much money was in its carry-over fund or how many days of full operations that balance would pay for.
Politico last week, citing an internal NRC email, reported the agency had enough money to maintain operations for about seven working days. After that, only 300 of the regulator’s nearly 3,200 staffers would remain on the job.
Personnel exempt from furlough include the NRC commissioners, inspector general, and resident inspectors. Functions that would continue in a lapse of appropriations encompass event notification, emergency response, ressident inspections at licensed nuclear facilities, and security and safeguardsfor nuclear reactors and materials, according to a shutdown contingency plan the NRC updated last month.
Senate Democrats forced a government shutdown last week after Republicans refused to allow any vote on legal protection for young people brought into the country illegally. Most of those same Democrats on Monday voted to reopen the government after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) promised a vote on that very issue before the current spending measure runs out.
