The House of Representatives on Thursday is at last clear to debate several amendments to a 2020 minibus spending bill that concern nuclear weapons operations at the Department of Energy.
Debate could have started Wednesday evening, but floor action on the House Appropriations Committee’s fiscal 2020 minibus appropriations package ground to a snail’s pace as Republican congressman Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) insisted on roll-call votes for many of the 100-plus amendments that went to the House floor before lawmakers approved a rule allowing debate on nuclear and defense amendments.
Lawmakers held that crucial vote around 6 p.m. on Wednesday, laying the ground for pro- and anti-nuclear amendments to the 2020 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act and the 2020 Defense Appropriations Act to hit the floor. The bills have been wrapped into the larger minibus, along with funding measures for the State Department and other federal agencies.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) wrote an amendment to ensure the low-yield W76-2, a modified version of the existing w76-1 to be loaded on submarine-launched ballistic-missiles, would be permitted aboard Ohio-class vessels in the budget year that begins Oct. 1. In their 2020 spending package, House Democrats in the chamber’s majority denied the Navy some $19.5 billion in requested 2020 funding to deploy W76-2.
Meanwhile, an amendment from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) would move $660 million in weapons funding for the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to the agency’s nuclear nonproliferation program.
Another Jayapal amendment would prohibit research on the Long-Range Standoff weapon: the next-generation, air-launched cruise missile the Defense Department wants to deploy beginning around 2025.
Also authorized for floor debate is an amendment that would allow the Department of Energy to spend $5 million researching the use of low-enriched uranium to fuel nuclear-powered warships and submarines. Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) sponsored the amendment, along with Reps. Bill Foster (D-Ill.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), and Rick Larsen (D-Wash).
Some advocates for nuclear nonproliferation support transitioning the nuclear navy from high-enriched uranium fuel to proliferation-resistant low-enriched uranium. The Navy supports high-enriched uranium fuel because it is more energy dense and allows ships to stay at sea longer.
One amendment that did not make the cut for floor debate was a proposal by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and John Garamendi (D-Calif.) to trim funding the NNSA sought to refurbish the W80 nuclear warhead.
The proposed House minibus 2020 minibus spending bill would fund most NNSA nuclear modernization programs at the requested level. However, it would slice 20% from the request for the next-generation Ground Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile, to about $460 million. The Defense Department wants to deploy that weapon beginning around 2030.
The proposed House minibus also would limit funding to produce the NNSA-made warheads and warhead cores, or plutonium pits, for the future ICBMs.
Debate was set to resume at 9 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday.
The Senate Armed Services Committee had yet to draft an energy and water or defense appropriations act at deadline Thursday.
