Fleischmann wants most “robust” 2026 DOE budget reality allows

The chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Energy and Water wants to see the Department of Energy’s nuclear-related programs receive as much money as realistically possible during a period of government cutbacks.

“I want to see the most robust budgets that we can — understanding that we are in tight fiscal times,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) told Exchange Monitor following a House Cleanup Caucus presentation in Washington, D.C., on March 26. “But I can say this, we have got to pass a budget.”

Fleischmann’s remarks came days before Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R- S.D.) said March 31 “I’m looking forward to taking up our budget resolution in the very near future.”

While DOE job cutbacks might not be over, Fleischmann, whose district borders DOE’s Oak Ridge Site in eastern Tennessee, said they have “stabilized.”

Fleischmann, who also sits on the Appropriations subcommittee for defense, voted for the recently-passed six-month continuing resolution to keep the government open through the end of fiscal 2025 on Sept. 30.

The stopgap deal generally kept DOE funding at fiscal 2024 levels although it lost certain leeway in “programming” certain nuclear initiatives for fiscal 2025, Fleischmann said. It is important Congress pass an actual 12-month budget for fiscal 2026 to support DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Environmental Management and Office of Nuclear Energy, Fleischmann said.

“My personal goal” is to “see the president’s budget,” and then maximize DOE funding for nuclear weapons, cleanup and advanced reactor programs given an austerity era, Fleischmann said. President Donald Trump has prioritized shrinking the size of the federal government since taking office Jan. 20. Many of Trump’s workforce reduction efforts are under legal appeal.

The appropriator, who has voiced concerns about a “workforce shortage” at NNSA, would not speculate on whether job reductions at DOE are over. “I don’t know because I have not participated in that,” Fleischmann said of the workforce reduction discussions at DOE.  “I will say this: It has stabilized.”