The Senate on Wednesday passed a compromise version of the 2024 National Defense Appropriations Act that sets policy and spending limits for nuclear weapons and all other defense programs.
The Senate easily passed the bill, unveiled last week after closed-door negotiations with members of the House, by 87-13.
The House of Representatives was scheduled to vote Thursday on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The lower chamber needs a two-thirds majority to pass the bill. Appropriations for the Department of Energy and some federal agencies run through Jan. 19. Appropriations for the Department of Defense and another set of agencies runs through Feb. 2.
For active nuclear weapons programs managed by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, the bill authorizes $24 billion, about $200 million more than requested.
For cleanup of shuttered nuclear weapons sites managed by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the bill authorizes more than $7 billion for the defense environmental cleanup account, about $30 million less than what the White House requested.
The 2024 NDAA the Senate approved Wednesday does not contain a Senate-authored package of reforms for civilian nuclear energy policy at the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
As he said he would, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Miss.) voted “nay” on the compromise NDAA, which did not extend the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) for 19 years, as a small bipartisan block of Senators had proposed. RECA provides health care benefits to people sickened by radiation from nuclear weapon sites.
