After hours of debate on more than 60 amendments this week, the House of Representatives canceled a planned vote on several 2025 appropriations bills, including the one that funds the Department of Energy.
Media reported Wednesday that a fractious, razor-thin Republican majority could not wrangle enough votes in their own party to pass the bills if all the Democrats in the chamber opposed the bills. The House now planned to begin its August recess early and not return to Washington until Sept. 9. The 2025 fiscal year ends Oct. 1.
There was no vote scheduled Thursday for the 2025 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, H.R. 8997, according to the Republican cloakroom’s website. The Senate Appropriations Committee began sending appropriations bills to the upper chamber’s floor last week but had not as of Thursday passed an Energy and Water bill.
“When Congress reconvenes in September, it is time for Republicans to join Democrats to quickly adopt bipartisan spending bills,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, wrote in a statement distributed to media Wednesday evening.
DOE’s 2025 budget bill hit the floor Tuesday and hours of floor debate on amendments followed. The House managed to pass a pair of amendments to shore up funds at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, before abandoning the bill.
In the bill, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy would get almost $1.8 billion, roughly what it got for fiscal-year 2024 and around $100 million more than requested. The extra money would go to development help for advanced reactors. However, the office’s waste management subprogram would get cut by more than half, relative to the 2024 budget.
Editor’s note, Sept. 12, 2024, 11:59 a.m. Eastern time. A type-o was removed from the story.
