The Senate Appropriations Committee approved all of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s funding request for the upcoming fiscal year at a markup this week.
In a 25-5 vote Wednesday the Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of the annual Energy and Water Development budget, which included every dime of NRC’s roughly $874 million request for fiscal 2022.
That figure factors in about $750 million the independent regulatory agency would recuperate in licensing fees — the Senate approved around $130 million in spending to come from federal coffers. It’s the same level greenlit by the House last week when it passed a 7-bill minibus appropriations package on a 219-208 party line vote.
If the Senate doesn’t pass its version of the minibus Congress may resort to a stopgap measure that extends the current fiscal year’s budget into the next. President Joe Biden has already said he would sign the House’s minibus, though with the Senate cramming through its own spending bills, a bicameral conference will be needed to produce a compromise bill for Biden’s consideration.
