More than a week after they stalled out, Congress still has not rescheduled final negotiations on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s 2019 budget, which would include funding for a new low-yield nuclear warhead.
The negotiations, a bicameral conference committee of lawmakers from the House and Senate, were supposed to start July 12. They were abruptly called off last week on account of what majority Republicans called “scheduling conflicts.” As of deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, the meetings had not been rescheduled.
House and Senate appropriations spokespersons did not reply to requests for comment about why lawmakers were unable to reschedule the conference meeting for H.R. 5895: a so-called minibus appropriations act for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The measure consolidates three of the 12 annual appropriations bills, including an Energy and Water Appropriations bill with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) proposed 2019 budget.
In the bill, the House proposed $35.5 billion overall for DOE in fiscal 2019, while the Senate recommended about $35 billion. Lawmakers are about $500 million apart in their recommendations for NNSA: the Senate proposed about $14.8 billion for the agency’s nuclear weapons, nonproliferation and naval reactors programs, while the House recommended roughly $15.3 billion.
[Click here to see Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor’s chart of the major differences between the House and Senate’s proposed 2019 NNSA budgets.]
[Click here to view the ExchangeMonitor’s National Nuclear Security Administration budget tracker, comparing the White House’s request with Congress’ proposals and the current budget.]
The House proposed far more funding than the Senate did for the NNSA’s infrastructure and operations budget, which pays for construction, repairs, maintenance, and upgrades of agency infrastructure.
