The U.S. Senate is considering a steep cutback in funding for most operations at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the upcoming 2020 federal budget year.
The $841.2 million budget recommendation unveiled last week would be just over $66.5 million less than the federal agency requested for salaries and expenses in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. However, the Senate Appropriations Committee directed that the nuclear industry regulator apply $40 million in unobligated balances from prior years.
“In developing this recommendation, the Committee has consulted with the Commission to ensure it maintains its gold-standard health and safety mission while reducing low-priority work,” according to the panel’s detailed report for the 2020 energy and water bill.
The Appropriations Committee on Sept. 12 voted 31-0 in favor of the nearly $49 billion measure that encompasses funding for the NRC, the Department of Energy, and other agencies. It now awaits action on the Senate floor as part of broader “minibus” legislation covering several appropriations bills that passed out of committee. But that bill was held up this week by political infighting over funding for the Trump administration’s planned wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Meanwhile, the House on Thursday voted 301-123 in favor of a continuing resolution that would keep federal agencies operating at current budget levels through Nov. 21. The Senate is expected to vote on the stopgap bill next week. Lawmakers hope to avoid another shutdown like the one that closed much of the government from late December 2018 through most of January 2019.
The office of Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) did not respond to queries regarding the reason for the recommended cutbacks to the NRC. The agency said Tuesday it does not comment on pending legislation.
The federal regulator in March requested $907.8 million for salaries and expenses, encompassing 2,999 full-time equivalent employees covering regulatory oversight missions for operational reactors, decommissioning and low-level waste, high-level waste, and spent fuel storage and transportation.
The NRC noted at the time that it has cut its budget by over $130 million, including about 700 full-time equivalent positions, since 2014.
That agency’s proposed spending amount would be $9.4 million above the agency’s current appropriation, primarily due to its request for funding to resume licensing of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada.
The agency is seeking a $38.5 million congressional appropriation for Yucca Mountain licensing activities in fiscal 2020, compared to the zero provided by Capitol Hill in the current budget. That spike would be largely offset by reductions in other business lines.
Both the Senate and House Appropriations committees in the current funding cycle have rejected funding at DOE and the NRC to resume licensing for the controversial disposal site. That is then reflected in their overall reduced funding plans for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Congress this year appears unanimous in focusing appropriations toward interim storage as an expedited means for the federal government to meet its legal responsibility to take used reactor fuel off the hands of nuclear power plant operators.
The NRC receives about 90% of its annual funding from licensees and license applicants. Its fiscal 2020 budget plan for salaries and expenses calls for $748.7 million from licensee fees and $159.1 million from congressional appropriations. The Senate Appropriations Committee recommended just shy of $723.5 million in fee revenue and a nearly $117.8 million appropriation.
That funding does not cover the NRC’s Inspector General’s Office, for which the committee met the agency’s request for a $2.4 million appropriation. The office would receive another $10.9 million in licensee fees, for a total of $13.3 million, according to the Senate bill.
The House energy and water bill, passed in June as part of a multi-agency minibus, would provide a total of $885.2 million for NRC salaries and expenses and the requested $13.3 million for the Inspector General’s Office.
The two chambers will eventually have to merge their energy and water bills in conference. Last September, they passed and got President Donald Trump’s signature on a minibus before the start of the budget year. That enabled the Energy Department and NRC, along with other agencies, to avoid the shutdown of some federal branches starting in late December amid the political dispute over funding the southern-border wall.
Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board
Both the Senate and House Appropriations committees recommended meeting the requested $3.6 million budget for the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. That would be flat from the current funding level.
The board was established by the 1987 amendment to the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act to “evaluate the technical and scientific validity of activities undertaken by the Department of Energy” related to management of nuclear waste.
