News and updates

Today, both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees approved their respective FY 2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bills.

This morning, the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee passed by voice vote the FY2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. The bill will now be referred to the full House Appropriations Committee for consideration. The FY2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bill funds the Department of Energy’s Office of Science at $5.4 billion, which is an increase of $53 million, or 1 percent above FY2016 enacted level of $5.347 billion. The bill funds ARPA-E at $305.8 million, which is an increase of $14.8 million, or 5.1 percent above FY2016 enacted level of $291 million.

This afternoon, the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee approved by voice vote its FY 2017 spending bill providing $37.5 billion for the Department of Energy and water programs. The measure includes $6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, $12.9 billion for nuclear security programs and $1.14 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation, according to a committee summary. 

The Senate bill totals $37.5 billion, which is $355 million above FY2016 enacted funding levels and $261 million above the President’s FY 2017 request. During his opening statement, Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) stressed the importance of doubling funding for basic energy research. The FY2017 Energy and Water Appropriations bill funds the Department of Energy’s Office of Science at $5.4 billion, which is $53 million, or a 1 percent increase over FY2016 enacted funding levels ($5.347 billion). This is the same amount of funding the Office of Science received in the House Energy and Water Appropriations  bill that was marked-up earlier today.

The Senate proposal eliminates funding for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Both Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) were in agreement on the elimination of this program. Chairman Alexander remarked that the elimination of funding for ITER would save $125 million for investment in other areas. Ranking Member Feinstein said that continued funding of ITER would threaten domestic fusion programs and the Army Corp of Engineers. 

The bill funds ARPA-E at $292 million, which is consistent with the amount of funding it received in the House Energy and Water Appropriations  bill.  The bill also funds exascale computing at $285 million.

The measure is scheduled for full committee consideration Thursday and is expected to reach the Senate floor next week.

Like the House, The Senate Appropriations Committee has announced will hold full committee markups of the Energy-Water and Military Construction-VA appropriations bills on Thursday, April 14. At that meeting, the committee will also disclose discretionary spending levels for individual subcommittees, known as 302(b)s. 

The Senate has yet to pass its FY 2017 Budget, but Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) has previously announced the Senate’s intention to hold to the budget agreement made last year, and move forward with a deeming motion allowing the FY 2017 appropriations process to move forward.

The House Appropriations Committee announced that they will be marking up three FY 2017 bills next week. The subcommittees for Agriculture and Energy & Water will consider their respective bills and the full committee will consider the FY 2017 Military Construction-VA bill. The committee had released a draft bill of the Military Construction-VA bill prior to Congress’s Easter Recess. All three are among the least controversial of the annual appropriations bills.

Additionally, the committee announced plans to consider an “interim report” on sub-allocations of discretionary budget allocations, which likely refers to provisional discretionary spending levels for the 12 appropriations subcommittees known as 302(b)s.

The announcement comes in advance of the House’s return from the Easter break, and when the House returns, there will be a short four legislative days to enact a FY 2017 Budget Resolution. 

With House Republicans stymied on a fiscal 2017 budget resolution, the House Rules Committee will consider changes to the appropriations process next week that could be aimed at finding a compromise to the budget conundrum. Those changes could include a measure to allow appropriators to cut mandatory spending. Conservatives are looking for a way to guarantee mandatory spending cuts to offset higher discretionary spending. Regardless, there should be significant Congressional movement next week.