House approves $1 billion cut to nuclear agency funding
Most of the reductions would impact NNSA's nonproliferation and weapons accounts.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved spending legislation for the next budget cycle that would cut nearly $1 billion in proposed funding for the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration's weapons and nonproliferation programs.
The fiscal 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations bill would provide the nuclear agency, a semiautonomous branch of the Energy Department, $10.6 billion to carry out duties including maintaining the country's atomic stockpile and conducting nonproliferation operations around the world.
The sum, approved in a 219-196 vote, is roughly $1.1 billion less than President Obama's original $11.7 billion request for the agency for the budget year that begins on October 1. The lion's share of the reductions would impact the nuclear agency's nonproliferation and weapons accounts, with respective cuts of $428 million and $498 million.
The White House requested $7.6 billion for NNSA "weapons activities," which ensure the safety and stability of the nation's thermonuclear arsenal, and slightly more than $2 billion for nonproliferation programs.
The funding is part of an overall measure that provides around $31 billion for the Energy Department, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as well as several regional water and power authorities.
The legislation includes $35 million to support activities at Yucca Mountain, including $10 million for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to carry on its review of the license application for the radioactive waste storage site. The Obama administration has aimed to zero funding for the controversial project and to nullify the permit application
The spending blueprint approved last month by the House Appropriations Committee cut NNSA nonproliferation funding by $463 million, but on Wednesday lawmakers adopted by voice vote an amendment offered by Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) and House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee top Democrat Loretta Sanchez (Calif.) to ostensibly restore $35 million to the agency's Global Threat Reduction Initiative.
The program, which had been slated for a $120 million reduction from the requested amount and under the committee plan would receive $388 million in the coming budget cycle, aims to reduce and remove "high-priority" vulnerable nuclear material, such as highly enriched uranium, from overseas sites. The effort also converts research reactors powered by weapon-usable highly enriched uranium to use proliferation-resistant low-enriched uranium fuel.
The bipartisan amendment restores $35 million to the nuclear agency's nonproliferation operations but does not provide details on which program would receive the funds. However, both lawmakers voiced their desire that the dollars be used by the threat reduction program, specifically its reactor conversion initiative.
Budget documents show that appropriators sliced the $148.3 million request for that account nearly in half, by $70 million.
On Monday, House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner (R-Ohio) offered and withdrew an amendment to highlight the nearly half-billion cut to NNSA weapons activities and restore $241 million to the accounts with offsets from a pair of Army Corps of Engineers water projects.
"This restoration is critically important to revitalize and modernize our nuclear security enterprise," Turner said.
His 16-member panel in March submitted a letter to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) asking that NNSA funding be preserved in fiscal years 2011 and 2012 and classified as national security spending to prevent future reductions.
"The problem is that nuclear weapons spending is considered part of the Energy and Water appropriations bill, instead of defense appropriations," the Ohio lawmaker said on Monday in a House floor speech.
The full chamber in May approved a fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill that would provide the full funding request for the nuclear agency.
Both House measures ultimately have to be wed with the Senate defense authorization and Energy and Water appropriations bills before going to President Obama for his signature or veto.
The Senate is not expected to take up its version of the spending measure until after the August recess.