House and Senate subcommittees were scheduled to hold hearings about the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2022 budget request on Wednesday, even though the White House was not expected to release the full budget request until May 27.
The Senate-side hearing will be the first of the season dedicated to the civilian nuclear weapons programs managed by DOE’s semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the nuclear-weapons cleanup helmed by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.
Up first in the day is the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee, which has scheduled Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm for testimony starting at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time. The subcommittee was scheduled to stream the virtual hearing live on its website.
Granholm’s testimony, per House rules, appeared online Wednesday afternoon. The testimony did not include a fiscal 2022 budget request for either the nuclear weapons programs managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) or the nuclear-weapons cleanup programs managed by the Office of Environmental Management.
Granholm’s testimony did say it would “sustain” the Environmental Management budget, which hovered around $7.5 billion for fiscal year 2021. The DOE boss also said the 2022 budget request “includes the recapitalization of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) physical infrastructure and essential facilities to ensure our deterrent remains viable.”
Last week, Granholm said she supported the NNSA’s plan to produce plutonium pits — fissile nuclear-weapon cores — in both South Carolina and New Mexico.
The Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee might hear more details about the two-state pit plan at its scheduled 4:30 p.m. hearing with acting NNSA Administrator Charles Verdon, who was scheduled to testify alongside William “Ike” White, acting assistant secretary of energy for environmental management and Adm. James Caldwell, deputy administrator for the NNSA’s office of naval reactors.
The Senate hearing will take place in the Senate Russel office building, but the subcommittee will also stream the proceedings online.
