On Thursday, after a two-week squabble about who to elect as speaker, the House of Representatives passed a bill to fund defense and civilian nuclear nuclear programs for the rest of fiscal year 2024.
Civilian nuclear programs at the Department of Energy and elsewhere would essentially remain flat under the House’s bill. Active nuclear weapons programs would get a boost. The Senate this week brought a package of spending bills to the floor, though none include funding for DOE nuclear programs.
The House’s 2024 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act passed on what was almost a party-line vote; one Republican joined all House Democrats in voting no. The House passed the bill a day after the chamber’s GOP majority unanimously elected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as speaker.
The House and Senate still have to reconcile their competing energy and water spending bills, which differ wildly in top-line spending for the entire Department of Energy but are relatively similar when it comes to defense and civilian nuclear weapons programs in and out of the department.
The House’s bill would increase spending for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy by about 20% year-over-year to about $1.8 billion.
House appropriators want to pump unrequested funding into programs aimed at developing advanced nuclear reactors and advanced nuclear fuel.
Senate appropriators matched the White House’s request of about $1.56 billion and gave DOE specific instructions to identify a site for a government-owned-and-operated interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel.
Federal agencies are now funded at the annualized equivalents of their 2023 levels until Nov. 18 under a stopgap spending bill passed in early October. For the Office of Nuclear Energy, that means operating with the equivalent of a roughly $1.47-billion annual budget.
Even with a new speaker, House Republicans, who want big federal spending cuts overall, face the same obstacle as the previous speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.): Democrats in the Senate and White House who want the federal government to spend as much money as allowed by a law passed in spring to extend the government’s ability to borrow money.
