The Department of Energy and other federal agencies could operate under their 2021 budgets for at least another week beyond Friday, after the Senate passed a short-term continuing resolution by voice vote Friday afternoon.
The Hill reported the vote to avert a government shutdown and keep agencies operating until Dec. 18.
The House of Representatives approved the one week continuing resolution extension in a Wednesday vote of 343-67. The current stopgap bill, passed ahead of the end of the 2020 fiscal year on Sept. 30, stretched 2020 budgets through this week.
The lameduck government seeks to reach an agreement on federal funding before the 116th Congress ends Jan. 3, but in the meantime, it would keep nuclear-weapons cleanup managed by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) about flat compared with 2020.
Under the continuing resolution, EM would get the annualized equivalent of $7.45 billion, which is $1.3 billion more than requested for 2021, but a little less than either the $7.46 billion the House proposed as part of a multi-bill appropriations package over the summer, or the $7.47 billion the Senate Appropriations Committee proposed Nov. 10.
In addition, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, the independent health-and-safety watchdog for active and shuttered DOE nuclear-weapon sites, would stay at $31 million under the continuing resolution: a little higher than the $29 million the administration requested.
Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would get about $10 million less than the $850 million the White House requested, under the stopgap extension. Both chambers of Congress this year essentially proposed to grant the White House’s budget request for the civilian nuclear power-plant regulator. There was no money for Yucca Mountain in either the White House’s 2021 request or the appropriations bills Congress produced this year.
Also this week in Congress, the House of Representatives approved the final version of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act with a veto-proof margin Tuesday evening, sending the bill and its new nuclear waste and weapons policies to the Senate.
The House passed the bill 300-135 , with every member voting. Among other things, the measure would require the Department of Energy to annually disclose missed milestones on legacy nuclear-weapons cleanup projects.
President Donald Trump has threatened to veto the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for reasons unrelated to nuclear waste or weapons programs. The 2021 NDAA would authorize some $5.8 billion for defense environmental cleanup, the single largest account at DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.
