House Appropriations Committee holds hearing on the FY 2024 energy budget

Today, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm testified before the House Appropriations Energy & Water Development Subcommittee to justify the Administration’s FY 2024 budget request for the Department of Energy (DOE). ECA’s recap of the new budget proposal is available here.

In Secretary Granholm’s opening remarks, she highlighted the $8.3 billion in funding for the Office of Environmental Management (EM), noting, “This investment will enable the Department of Energy to treat radioactive tank waste, take down contaminated buildings, and ship and dispose legacy waste and clean soil and groundwater across Environmental Management sites.”

Secretary Granholm also discussed the record-high $23.8 billion budget proposal for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which would support infrastructure improvements and plutonium modernization.

Finally, she highlighted several other DOE funding requests, including investments in clean energy jobs and infrastructure, research at national laboratories and universities, and strengthening the energy supply chain.

Nuclear Energy

Subcommittee Chairman Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) noted that he was “pleased to see strong funding” for missions, such as nuclear security and environmental cleanup. However, he expressed concern about the 12 percent reduction in the Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) budget compared to the FY 2023 level. He explained, “Nuclear energy, a base load carbon-free source of electricity, will be essential in achieving any climate change goals, so it is difficult to understand such a large cut, especially as other programs see double- and triple-digit increases.”

Granholm addressed the proposed cut to the NE budget in response to a question from Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS): “The budget decrease was only related to the two Advanced Reactor Demonstration Projects that were in fact funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. So those reactors are still happening, but they’re over in the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations…Nuclear is still supported in this budget, it’s just going to a different place in the budget.”

Consent-Based Siting and Nuclear Waste

Congresswoman Susie Lee (D-NV) asked Secretary Granholm if the Department remains committed to consent-based siting as the path forward for nuclear waste management, to which the Secretary agreed. 

Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) asked Secretary Granholm about whether the Department is exploring reprocessing of nuclear waste. The Secretary noted DOE is investing efforts at Idaho National Laboratory to study whether reprocessing could become affordable in the future. She expressed that “it could be a—not the—but a solution to some of the issues of waste.”

Community-Focused Funding

Ranking Member Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) asked Secretary Granholm about how the budget would support communities, especially those considered disadvantaged communities. Secretary Granholm emphasized that there are several programs that address this issue, such as the newly created Office of State and Community Energy Programs, which will offer technical assistance to economically disadvantaged communities; the Local Government Energy Program; and a “Clean Energy to Communities” initiative. Her opening remarks also mentioned the $70 million request for the Community Capacity Building Program.

Potential Cuts to Appropriations

Secretary Granholm was asked about the impact of potential funding cuts proposed by the House majority to FY 2022 levels. Granholm argued that if appropriations were cut to those levels, “…there would be over 5,000 people cut from our labs…the warhead modernization program would be significantly hampered, delayed one to two years.” She detailed more about the potential impacts of decreasing the DOE budget in a letter to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) last week.