The Department of Energy’s 2023 budget was extended through Jan. 19 by another short-term spending bill, which Congress passed this week before leaving Washington for their Thanksgiving recess.
President Joe Biden (D) signed the House-authored bill on Thursday, the same day the Senate passed it 87-11. The House passed the bill Tuesday 336-95. This is the second continuing resolution Congress has had to pass in fiscal year 2024 because the divided Congress and the President cannot agree on spending levels for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1.
The latest stopgap budget extends 2023 budgets to Jan. 19 for some agencies and until Feb. 2 for others. DOE, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board are in the first tier. Other agencies, including the Department of Defense, are in the second.
Under the latest continuing resolution, DOE’s Office of Environment Management will continue to operate with the annualized equivalent of an $8 billion budget. That is about $300 million less than the House approved in its full-year 2024 spending bill and nearly $500 million less than the Senate Appropriations committee approved in a 2024 spending bill that had yet to get a vote on the floor at deadline Friday, for Weapons Complex Monitor.
The Senate bill has extra funding for DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington state, the home state of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s chairwoman, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its portfolio of nuclear weapons programs would continue to receive the annualized equivalent of roughly $22 billion under the latest continuing resolution. That’s about $2 billion less than the full House and Senate Appropriations Committee proposed for 2024 in separate bills.
Under the latest continuing resolution DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy would receive the annualized equivalent of $1.47 billion under the stopgap, a worst-case scenario compared with any of the funding options on the table in the House and Senate.
Senate appropriators agreed to a 6% raise for the civilian nuclear energy and nuclear-waste office, in line with the White House’s request. House Appropriators, on the other hand, proposed a 20% raise that included unrequested increases to advanced reactor programs.
Any agency funded by these appropriations bills remains funded until Feb. 2, under the latest continuing resolution:
- Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies.
- Defense.
- Financial Services and General Government.
- Homeland Security.
- Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies.
- Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.
- Legislative Branch.
Agencies funded by these appropriations bills remain funded until Jan. 19.
- Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration.
- Energy and Water Development.
- Military Construction, Veterans Affairs.
- Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.
