House Armed Services Committee Releases FY25 NDAA Language
The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) released its version of the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) earlier this week. The NDAA is considered a must-pass bill, as it authorizes all defense activities.
The HASC does not recommend an increase in the defense topline. They’re proposing $849.8 billion, which is close to the amount requested by the Pentagon.
In their version of the bill, $33.8 billion is included for defense spending at other federal agencies, like Department of Energy.
DOE, Atomic Energy Defense Activities highlights from this NDAA version include:
$24.9 billion total for National Nuclear Security Administration; including $19.98 billion for weapons activities. Under the $19.9 billion authorized for Weapons Activities, the NDAA includes the following for DOE activities:
$1.3 billion for the Savannah River Site (SRS) Plutonium Modernization, including the SRS's Plutonium Processing Facility and Plutonium Operations.
$1.5 billion for the Los Alamos Plutonium Modernization mission, including, their operations, and their plutonium pit production mission, as well as their reinvestment project.
$7 billion for Defense Environmental Cleanup - this does not include non-defense cleanup. ECA will update our budget charts in the coming weeks to reflect the breakdown of cleanup sites.
$150 million for Nuclear Energy for the Idaho Office's sitewide safeguards and security
$205 Million for the Office of Legacy Management
$2.4 billion total for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, including:
$1.9 billion to go to Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Programs
The NDAA also includes concerns following the transition between DOE-EM and NNSA, as highlighted below:
The committee believes it is important to carefully track the transition of primary responsibility for the Savannah River Site from the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to ensure the site’s vital mission, workforce, and the surrounding community avoid undue disruption. However, the committee notes that structural differences between the budget documents submitted by EM and NNSA do not provide a clear picture of transitioning activities. For example, EM’s budget request for Community and Regulatory Support for the Savannah River Site is about $7.0 million less than the amount provided for the previous fiscal year. 37 Although NNSA’s budget does not contain an equivalent account, it has informed the committee that additional funds for the same activities are contained in its request for funds for Operations of Facilities at the Savannah River Site. Accordingly, the committee directs the Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration to provide a briefing to the House Committee on Armed Services by December 1, 2024, detailing the transfer of responsibility for activities and associated funding from EM to NNSA. Further, the committee encourages NNSA to include more detailed information in this respect in future budget submissions.
Next Steps
On May 22nd, the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Strategic Forces Subcommittee will receive testimonies from Secretary Jill Hruby, Senior EM Advisor Ike White, Deputy Administrator Admiral William Houston, Deputy Administrator Marvin Adams, General Thomas Bussiere, and Vice Admiral Johnny Wolfe, on DOE's Atomic Energy Defense Activities and Department of Defense Nuclear Weapons Program in Review of the NDAA FY25 Request. The hearing will take place at 4:45pm on May 22nd and can be viewed using this link.
Full bill language can be read here.
ECA will continue to provide updates as we begin to see authorization and appropriation language move through. Numbers for non-defense cleanup