The U.S. Senate is expected this week to act on its version of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which would permit more funding than the Trump administration requested for Department of Energy nuclear cleanup and as much money as requested for nuclear weapons programs.
That is the sole bit of congressional action expected on nuclear-related legislation before lawmakers leave Washington for a weeklong July 4 recess.
The Senate is due today to formally vote to proceed with debate on the annual defense policy bill. After that vote, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James Inhofe (R-Okla.) plans to offer a substitute amendment that could include many noncontroversial changes to the policy measure. Senators had filed nearly 600 amendments to the 2020 NNDAA at deadline for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, most of which had nothing to do with defense nuclear programs.
The House, meanwhile, is not slated to debate its NDAA until the week of July 8. The House last week approved the 2020 appropriations bill that includes DOE’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The Senate had not written any appropriations bills at deadline.
Senate leadership has not signaled whether the body would vote on its NDAA before the July 4 break. The bill sets spending limits and policy for DOE nuclear programs, including the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear weapons programs and the Office of Environmental Management’s nuclear cleanup programs.
The Senate NDAA, if approved, would authorize the $16.5 billion in NNSA funding the White House requested for 2020, plus roughly $5.5 billion for the Environmental Management office’s flagship Defense Environmental Cleanup portfolio. The House NDAA authorizes $15.8 billion for the NNSA and just a little more than the Senate for Defense Environmental Cleanup.
Amendments to the Senate NDAA that touch on defense nuclear matters are:
An amendment from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to create a “Congressional Commission on Preventing, Countering, and Responding to Nuclear and Radiological Terrorism”;
An amendment from New York’s Senate delegation — Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) and presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) — to authorize $40 million more than the White House requested for the NNSA’s inertial confinement fusion ignition and high yield program.
