The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee is recommending an $841.2 million budget for most operations at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the upcoming 2020 federal budget year.
That would be just over $66.5 million less than the federal regulator requested for salaries and expenses for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. However, the committee directed that the nuclear industry regulator apply $40 million in unobligated balances from previous years.
The panel on Thursday voted 31-0 in favor of the nearly $49 billion energy and water development bill that encompasses the NRC funding. It now awaits action on the Senate floor, after which Senate and House members would meet in conference to merge their respective versions of the legislation.
“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 report for the 2020 energy and water bill.
The NRC in March requested $907.8 million for salary and expenses, encompassing 2,999 full-time equivalent employees covering regulatory oversight missions in areas including operational reactors, decommissioning and low-level waste, high-level waste, and spent fuel storage and transportation.
That funding 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. 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.
The NRC budget plan for salaries and expenses calls for $748.7 million in funding from licensee fees and $159.1 million from congressional appropriations. The Senate Appropriations Committee recommended just shy of $723.5 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” appropriations measure, 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.
