Highlights:

• Senate committee advances bill with NRC reforms, waste report, and more
• Congress passes debt limit legislation ($886 billion defense spending cap; $704 billion nondefense spending cap)
• Appropriations markups this month
• National Defense Authorization Act to move this month

In a busy June for Congress, legislators addressed the debt limit by sending a bill with caps on defense and nondefense spending to President Biden, which was signed over the weekend. A Senate committee advanced the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act. In the coming weeks, Congress will begin marking up the FY 2024 appropriations bills and the National Defense Authorization Act.

Senate committee advances comprehensive bill with NRC reforms, waste report, and more

The Senate Energy and Public Works Committee voted 16-3 to advance the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act. The bill aims to “enhance United States civil nuclear leadership, support the licensing of advanced nuclear technologies, strengthen the domestic nuclear energy fuel cycle and supply chain, and improve the regulation of nuclear energy.”

Regarding new nuclear development, there are provisions that would provide advanced nuclear reactor prizes and enable demonstrations of advanced reactors on DOE sites.

Additionally, the bill requires several reports on the nuclear waste inventory, advanced methods of manufacturing and construction for nuclear energy applications, and readiness to reduce reliance on uranium from Russia.

The bill addresses the NRC’s efficiency by requiring an assessment of the Commission’s performance metrics and milestone schedules every three years.

Finally, the bill would provide grants to “nuclear closure communities” for economic development efforts or to fund community advisory boards. Such communities include local governments that are impacted by the closure of nuclear power plants or are at sites with spent nuclear fuel.

The full bill is available here.

Congress to begin work on appropriations bills this month

The House Appropriations Committee is set to hold full committee markups on four bills next week (Agriculture, Homeland Security, Legislative Branch and Military Construction-VA).

The Senate will also begin marking up appropriations bills later this month, likely beginning with the Agriculture and Military Construction-VA portions first. Debt limit negotiations over the last two weeks have caused the committees to delay its work on appropriations.

With new spending caps established by the debt limit law, appropriators are now able to move forward with the markup process using those new caps. Defense spending may increase up to about 3 percent compared to the last fiscal year, while nondefense spending is expected to remain flat.

National Defense Authorization Act to be considered week of June 19

The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on June 21 to consider the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which contains several key national security provisions for the Department of Energy. The Senate Armed Services Committee will examine its version of the bill the same week, beginning on June 20.

What to watch for in the NDAA this year: Addressing the plutonium pit production plan for Los Alamos National Laboratory and Savannah River Site; provisions related to DOE’s environmental management program; and authorization of funds for environmental cleanup and National Nuclear Security Administration programs.

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