Civilian nuclear weapons programs would get a little more funding than requested in fiscal year 2024 if a bill sent to the House Appropriations Committee this week becomes law.
The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee’s version of the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2024 spending bill would provide $48.8 billion overall for the agency, $133 million more than the current fiscal year but a $3.6 billion overall cut from the Biden Administration’s request for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
“The nation’s defense against all adversaries, including China and Russia rests on a strong nuclear deterrent,” Subcommittee Chair Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.)said. “Therefore, the bill includes $24 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Within that, the bill fully funds all major weapons and infrastructure modernization activities, including the W93 warhead, the nuclear sea-launched cruise missile, the B83 gravity bomb, and the restart of plutonium production capability. And NNSA funding also supports naval reactors and defense nuclear nonproliferation.”
The subcommittee approved the bill Thursday by voice vote along party lines for the full House Appropriations Committee’s consideration. The full committee had not scheduled a markup at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
Democrats on the subcommittee assailed the bill’s deep cuts to discretionary spending on renewable energy and other non-defense programs.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), the subcommittee’s ranking member, summed up her party’s thoughts on the bill, saying she “must oppose this bill” because of a proposed 22% cut to non-defense spending.
“This is a radical reduction that imperils our nation’s imperative to become and remain energy independent, here at home in perpetuity,” Kaptur said. “It includes untenable offsets to hide the harmful cuts this allocation would require. … The bill’s extreme budget cuts would impede American progress, resulting in higher energy costs and the increased dependence on foreign adversaries for energy supplies.”
Of the NNSA’s nuclear weapons modernization efforts, Kaptur said “the cost overruns are absolutely unacceptable.
“I continue to be troubled by the unsustainable standing in the Department of Energy’s weapons programs. We must face the realities and begin making important decisions to prioritize within this program and keep spending in check.”
The subcommittee’s spending bill would provide $23.9 billion for the NNSA for fiscal year 2024, which is $1.8 billion more than the current budget and about $100 million more than the administration requested.
That includes $19 billion for NNSA weapons activities, which is in line with the administration’s 2024 budget request and a $1.6 billion increase from the current fiscal year.
Naval reactor funding “to support the operational nuclear fleet, Columbia-class submarine reactor development, and research and development for current and future generations of nuclear-powered warships” comes in at $1.94 billion under the subcommittee’s bill, a slight decrease from the administration’s $1.96 billion request. It is also a slight cut from the $2 billion naval reactor budget for the current fiscal year.
Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation would get $2.3 billion, a slight decrease from the $2.5 billion in the 2024 request.
The subcommittee’s version of the appropriations bill “fully funds all major stockpile modernization activities, including the W-93” submarine-launched ballistic missile warhead that will eventually replace the W76-1 and W88 Alt-370 warheads on the Trident II D5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles carried by Ohio-class submarines.
It also “provides additional funding for plutonium pit production, the Uranium Processing Facility, and the nuclear Sea-Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM-N) program,” the subcommittee said in a statement on Wednesday.
Also this week, a draft fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) – released Tuesday by the House Armed Services Committee – included $70 million for development of a SLCM-N that would carry a sea-launched variant of the W80-4 warhead.
The administration’s 2024 budget request included no funding for the program. The NDAA, which the House Armed Services Committee was scheduled to consider next week, would authorize $389 million for the W93 warhead.
The NDAA also includes a total of $2.9 billion for plutonium pit production modernization, split between the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. That is an increase of $142 million compared with the administration’s 2024 budget request. The draft NDAA prescribes $760 million for the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
