This week, almost halfway through the fiscal year that started Oct. 1, congressional appropriators announced they would pass a final 2024 budget for the Department of Energy and other agencies next week.
In the meantime, to avoid a partial government shutdown on Friday, when funding for DOE and other agencies was set to expire, Congress on Thursday passed yet another short-term continuing resolution that will largely hold federal agencies to their 2023 budgets. On Thursday, the Senate approved the stopgap by a vote of Thursday 77-13 and the House by a vote of 320-99.
President Joe Biden (D) said Thursday he would sign the week-long spending bill.
Under the continuing resolution, the fourth of fiscal year 2024, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy would receive the annualized equivalent of $1.47 billion, less than either House or Senate appropriators approved. Last year, Senate appropriators produced a bill with a 6% raise for the civilian nuclear energy and nuclear-waste office, in line with the White House’s request.
House Appropriators on the other hand included unrequested increases to advanced reactor programs within the Office of Nuclear Energy as part of a spending bill that would give the office roughly a 20% raise year-over-year.
