*FY2025 Enacted topline not available for all Offices
**NDAA only applies to Office and Programs that require authorization for Defense spending
***NNSA & DOE Discretionary total does not include $4.782 billion in Reconciliation resources for NNSA.
The Senate has yet to release Bill text for their version of the Energy and Water Bill, with the Senate Appropriations Committee at an impasse over funding increases. The Senate Bill is not expected to make cuts as large as the House Bill.
What is clear is that starting October 1, DOE will likely be under a continuing resolution (CR). OMB sets the level of spending when there is a CR. If OMB uses the House number, communities will see immediate cuts in the EM program.
There is no Senate number to use at this point and if OMB uses the President’s request, the cuts will be less in EM but there will still be cuts. OMB will decide these things very quickly and it will be interesting to see how that impacts our communities.
At the same time all of this is going on. We're also seeing great opportunities at EM sites and in DOE. DOE has prioritized, what ECA has asked for
decades, which is the opportunity to reuse some of this land for economic development opportunities such as new nuclear, manufacturing, and now data centers. The announcements and the growth in opportunities has been significant in many of your communities and ECA members are working hard to move the announced projects into projects that will be constructed and financed.
Learn more about the appropriations process on
our website.
National Defense Authorization Act
House
This week,
the House is moving the Defense Authorization Act forward. Today, the rules committee and house floor actions begin. H.R. 3838
Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery and National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 was passed out of the Armed Services Committee with bipartisan support. DOE defense activities including NNSA and EM are heavily supported in the bill including new nuclear projects on military bases (both pilot projects and investment in nuclear energy). The House Bill sets nuclear weapons production at 30 pits per year at Los Alamos and 50 pits per year at SRS. The House bill also limits the use of the “high-Level Waste Interpretation”
in Washington State (Hanford) unless certain steps are taken by EM.
Senate
The Senate last week moved the NDAA closer to floor action which is expected soon. Senate NDAA would authorize appropriations to NNSA, EM and other defense activities and nuclear energy. This title would codify provisions of law related to atomic
energy defense activities (Sec. 3111) and adjust plutonium pit production capacity to ensure that nuclear security enterprise produces at least 20 war reserve plutonium puts in 2026, 30 in 2027, 50 in 2029 and at least 80 war reserve plutonium pits in 2032 and subsequent years (Sec. 3112). It would also repeal the stockpile responsiveness program and establish — within the National Nuclear Security Administration — an Office of Rapid Capabilities Development to expedite the development and fielding of technologies and weapon systems in support of U.S. strategic deterrence requirements (Sec. 3113).
Additionally, this bill would direct the Nuclear Weapons Council to review the National
Nuclear Security Administration’s Enterprise Blueprint (Sec. 3114) and would require the Energy Department to notify Congress of cost overruns for
certain projects (Sec. 3115). It would amend the Atomic Energy Defense Act to include facilities owned or contracted by the National Nuclear Security Administration, national security laboratories and nuclear weapons production facilities among the facilities that must be protected from
unmanned aircraft (Sec. 3116).
This legislation would extend through 2036 the authority for the Energy Department to appoint certain scientific, engineering and technical personnel (Sec. 3117) and would clarify
that certain fiscal 2026 artificial intelligence funding can only be used to support the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nuclear security missions (Sec. 3118).
The measure would classify employees funded under
Atomic Energy Defense Activities as national security employees (Sec. 3121). It would require the Energy Department to develop performance metrics for the Office of Environmental Management, prioritizing any risk reduction efforts (as identified in the ECA webinar on
the GAO report recommending EM undertake certain actions (Sec. 3122). The bill would direct the Energy Department to develop a complex-wide analysis to identify optimal disposal pathways and schedules for defense radioactive waste produced by the department (Sec.
3123).
Lastly, this title would direct the National Nuclear Security Administration to submit a report to Congress on future activities and resources for delivering specialized infrastructure with demands across the nuclear stockpile, global security and naval nuclear propulsion missions (Sec. 3124).
Conclusion
There is a lot going on in Washington that impacts the DOE sites. There are a lot of opportunities and support for nuclear energy and national defense. EM is facing large cuts for the first time in many years. ECA will continue to keep you posted on the latest. We look forward to discussing these issues with you at the National Cleanup Workshop.
