House lawmakers were set Tuesday to question the four members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the agency’s latest budget request and about nuclear policy changes enacted this month.
The House Energy and Commerce energy, climate and grid security was set to begin the annual NRC budget hearing at 10:00 a.m. in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. The NRC seeks about $955 million for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The hearing is one of the few times of year when all the commissioners appear in public at the same time.
NRC recoups most of its annual appropriation by collecting fees from businesses it regulates. For fiscal year 2025, the White House estimated the commission would collect some $807 million in fees, leaving a net appropriation required of a little more than $145 million.
The Energy and Commerce Committee is an authorizing committee that sets policy for NRC and other federal agencies but does not set their budgets. The House Appropriations Committee, in a bill it passed this month, recommended meeting the White House’s 2025 budget request for the NRC. The House Rules Committee was set Monday to set the terms of floor debate for that bill.
In addition to the NRC’s 2025 budget request, which is some $27 million more than the 2024 appropriation, the subcommittee planned to ask commissioners Monday about the recently passed ADVANCE Act, a package of nuclear policy reforms signed into law July 9.
Among other things, the ADVANCE Act mandated operational reforms at NRC and requires the agency not to “unnecessarily limit” either “the civilian use of radioactive materials” or “the benefits of civilian use of radioactive materials and nuclear energy technology to society.”
“This legislation will modernize and improve licensing processes at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), ensuring we continue to grow this key part of America’s energy mix,” Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), respectively the chairs of the full committee and subcommittee, wrote in a press release.
