SENATE CR TRIMS FUNDING ANOMALY FOR USEC’S AMERICAN CENTRIFUGE PROJECT

Senate appropriators last night released their version of a Continuing Resolution that will fund the government until the end of the fiscal year, maintaining an anomaly that would continue to boost funding for the NNSA’s weapons program but decreasing funding for USEC’s American Centrifuge Project. The Department of Energy’s cost-share program supporting the ACP enjoyed an anomaly in the current CR funding government through March 27, and House appropriators fully supported funding the project at $150 million in their version of the CR released last week. The Senate version of the bill only provides $110 million for the program, however. A Senate aide said the reduction was reflective of a lower overall allocation for the Senate than in the House. “It wasn’t a policy decision per se,” the aide said. “It was a lack-of-resources decision.”

 

While the USEC funding was cut, like their House counterparts, Senate appropriators agreed to keep an anomaly for the NNSA’s weapons program intact, allowing the agency to spend at the level of President Obama’s $7.58 billion FY 2013 request. “We must prevent a government shutdown,” Senate Appropriations Committee chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said in a statement. “My Vice Chairman, Senator Shelby, and I worked together on this bipartisan agreement that avoids a shutdown, complies with the Budget Control Act, improves the House CR for many critical priorities, and lets us wrap up fiscal year 2013 so we can get to next year’s budget and find a balanced solution to sequester.”