The Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget would increase year-over-year for 2023 but come up short against the Joe Biden administration’s request, under legislation a House subcommittee approved Tuesday.
For the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the semiautonomous nuclear-weapons agency, the subcommittee proposed about $21.2 billion, short of the request by almost $180 million, or 1%, but about $576 more than the 2022 appropriation.
A lower-than-requested proposal for the NNSA’s bread-and-butter nuclear-weapons refurbs, officially, Weapons Activities, accounts for most of the difference between the subcommittee’s proposal and the White House’s request.
Weapons Activities would get $16.3 billion in the bill, about $150 million less than the request but over $410 million more than the 2022 appropriation. On the other hand, NNSA’s Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Account would get about $2.4 billion in the bill, compared with the $2.3 billion requested to match the 2022 appropriation.
The full Appropriations Committee had not scheduled debate for the energy and water bill as of Friday afternoon. Meanwhile, the House Armed Services Committee this week authorized the NNSA to spend about $1 billion more than the subcommittee’s bill would provide.
