A House panel on Friday announced that it plans next week to vote on a bill to fund Department of Energy civilian nuclear programs for fiscal year 2025.
The House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee planned to stream the markup live on its YouTube channel. The bill under consideration would fund the Department of Energy and a few other federal agencies.
For fiscal year 2024, the White House requested about $1.7 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, some $94 million, or 5.5% less than the 2024 appropriation. Accounting for much of the gap between the request and the 2024 budget, the White House did not propose maintaining the 2024 spending boost appropriators gave to advanced nuclear energy programs.
Subcommittee markups are seldom controversial, often last only a few minutes and frequently do not include consideration of amendments.
At their mark ups, subcommittees often reveal some details about top-line spending for the agencies they fund, though detailed breakdowns of their proposals usually do not appear until just before the lengthier full committee markups that prepare spending bills for the House floor.
The full House Appropriations Committee typically schedules markups only after bills clear their respective subcommittees.
Congress did not pass a final fiscal 2024 budget until March, nearly halfway through the 2024 fiscal year. This year, control of both chambers of Congress and the White House are up for grabs in November’s general election.
