On August 1, the Senate passed the conference report for the National
Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2019, sending the bill to President Trump to be signed. The report contains funding levels and defense policies agreed to by a committee of legislators from both chambers. The House passed the bill one week earlier before leaving Washington for the August recess. The Senate’s vote marks the earliest that Congress has passed the annual defense authorization bill in 40 years.
The NDAA authorized $21.9 billion in funding for DOE's national security programs. This amount is a $219 million increase above FY 2018 appropriations and around $109 million above the President’s budget request.
For the National Nuclear Security Administration, the bill authorized a $564 million increase for a total of $15.2 billion for FY 2019. The
authorization for defense nuclear nonproliferation was decreased, and weapons activities were increased by $550.5 million over last fiscal year’s appropriated amount.
Defense environmental cleanup was decreased by $362 million below FY 2018. However, some sites such as Savannah River Site, Oak Ridge Reservation, and WIPP received increased authorizations. The final bill requires the
Secretary of Energy to review EM cleanup activities, which includes an assessment of DOE’s oversight and project management, in addition to recommendations to improve the efficiency of defense environmental cleanup activities.
While the House bill included $30 million for restarting Yucca Mountain licensing activities, the Senate bill did not include such funding. The final
bill ultimately did not include a funding authorization for the Yucca Mountain licensing activities.
The conference committee addressed the expansion of plutonium pit production to the MOX facility in South Carolina. The final bill requires the Secretary of Energy to develop a plan in case the MOX facility is not “operation and producing pits by 2030.” Additionally, the Nuclear Weapons Council would be required to annually update Congress on NNSA’s progress in achieving production of 80 pits per year by
2030.
