The House Armed Services Committee on Thursday approved its version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which includes allowing the Department of Energy to spend up to $7.5 billion on Defense Environmental cleanup.
The committee approved the bill early Thursday after a long markup and debate that began on Wednesday.
Defense Environmental is the largest tranche of spending within DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and the proposed bill from the Republican majority would be about flat with last year’s $7.1 billion spending once a $392 million contribution to the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning fund is taken into account.
The Uranium Enrichment remediation fund, like the Non-Defense Environmental Cleanup line item at the Office of Environmental Management, is not covered in the defense authorization bill.
On the appropriations side of the ledger, the administration of President Joe Biden (D) and the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee have both backed Defense Environmental spending below $7.1 billion.
The proposed National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2024 would again direct about $2.9 billion of DOE’s Defense Environmental spending to the Hanford Site in Washington state. About two-thirds of Hanford’s authorization, or $1.98 billion, would go to the Office of River Protection, which is in charge of the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant. The other $921 million is designation for the Richlands Operations Office.
The NDAA proposal would also authorize $47.2 million for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, equal to what the White House requested and more than the $45 million sought by the House Appropriations for fiscal 2024. Both proposal bills would be above the $41.4 million appropriated by congress in fiscal 2023.
The board is charged with providing outside advice and recommendations about nuclear defense facilities to the secretary of energy, who can then publicly accept or reject the recommendations.
