A package of nuclear-energy reforms reconciling popular House and Senate proposals is part of a House bill scheduled for a vote this week, according to the majority leader’s calendar.
The House was set to vote Tuesday on the Fire Grants and Safety Act of 2023, a bill from the Senate that at first ran all of three pages and had nothing to do with nuclear energy but now contains more than 90 additional pages of nuclear policy changes.
The bill was set to be considered on the House floor under a suspension of the rules, meaning limited debate, no amendments allowed and a two-thirds majority required for passage. A similar nuclear policy bill easily achieved that threshold in February.
The fire grants bill that is due to hit the House floor soon includes a modified version of the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act, which Sen. Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.) wrote last year.
In the amended fire grants bill, Capito’s proposals have been blended with some from the House’s Atomic Energy Advancement, approved by the lower chamber in February.
If passed on Tuesday, the Senate would have to concur with the House’s amended fire grants bill before the measure could go to President Joe Biden’s (D) desk. The White House had not issued a veto threat as of Monday morning.
Capito’s original bill had broad support in the Senate, where lawmakers last year allowed it to hitch a ride on the annual National Defense Appropriations Act.
House lawmakers stripped the Capito-authored nuclear text out of the defense bill but quickly advanced their own counterproposal, beginning the chain of events set to come to a head Tuesday on the House floor.
