The Senate late Tuesday cleared the first procedural hurdle to prevent an election year government shutdown, voting to end debate on a continuing resolution that would freeze Department of Energy defense-nuclear budgets at 2020 levels through Dec. 11.
The roughly quarter-long continuing resolution passed 82 to 6.
The measure would provide billions of dollars less than requested for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear weapons programs, over a billion more than requested for Manhattan Project and Cold War nuclear-weapons cleanup managed by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) and just under what the White House sought for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which regulates civilian nuclear power plants.
President Donald Trump must sign the bill by midnight tonight to avert a government shutdown during his reelection campaign against Democratic nominee Joe Biden, the former vice president.
The measure provides the annualized equivalent of about $7.45 billion for EM, about $1.3 billion more than requested. NNSA would get the equivalent of roughly $16.7 billion, some $3 billion less than requested. NNSA has warned anything below the request will affect delivery of refurbished nuclear weapons to the military.
Meanwhile, DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy would get $156 million under the continuing resolution, or about $28 million below the request. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would receive $855 million or so, about $10 million below the request.
