Todd Garvey
Legislative Attorney
This memorandum responds to your request for
information relating to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s authority to
prescribe the necessary contents of certain license applications. Specifically, you
asked whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Commission) has existing
authority to require that applicants seeking a license to operate a
uranium enrichment facility1 submit a “proliferation
risk assessment.”2 as part of the
license application. Given that the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) provides the Commission
with broad authority to promulgate mandatory licensing criteria for the use of
nuclear materials and the operation of nuclear facilities.—where such
criteria has a nexus to the common defense, health, or safety.— it would appear
that adequate statutory authority currently exists to permit the Commission
to mandate, by regulation, that applicants seeking a license to operate a
uranium enrichment facility provide the Commission with an assessment
detailing the proliferation risks associated with the facility.
Date of Report: March 27, 2012
Number of Pages: 4
Order Number: M-032712
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Fred Sissine
Specialist in Energy Policy
S. 1392—the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013—was
introduced on July 30, 2013. Often referred to as the Shaheen-Portman
bill, it is a trimmed-down version of S. 761. It contains provisions for
building energy codes, industrial energy efficiency, federal agencies, and
budget offsets. The bill contains voluntary provisions and was designed to
be deficit-neutral. To date, virtually all debate related to the bill has
been focused on floor amendments.
The bill was reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (SENR)
on a 19-3 vote. On August 1, 2013, a motion to proceed was introduced and
amendments began to be filed. On September 11, 2013, a unanimous consent
agreement on the motion launched floor action. By September 19, 2013, 125
amendments had been proposed. Of that total, 75 directly address energy
efficiency policy, 23 address “other” energy and carbon emissions policy
areas, and 27 address non-energy policy areas.
Amendments subject to controversy address five policy areas: fossil fuel use by
federal buildings, carbon emissions regulation, regional haze regulation,
Keystone XL Pipeline, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA, P.L. 111-148 as
amended). Only the Keystone XL Pipeline and one ACA amendment have been
the subject of major floor debate on S. 1392.
S.Amdt. 1908 on the Keystone XL Pipeline calls for a Sense of Congress
resolution that encourages the President to issue a permit needed to begin
construction. In floor debate, proponents argued that the project would
create thousands of jobs; generate tax revenues for federal, state, and
local governments; reduce dependence on oil imports from Venezuela; and
gain an “environmental advantage” from using high-tech refineries on the
Gulf Coast. Opponents contend that there would be less than 100 permanent
jobs, most of the oil would be exported, and there is a “tangible risk” of
a spill that could have severe environmental impacts.
S.Amdt. 1866 would amend Section 1312(d)(3)(D) of ACA and would affect how
Members of Congress, congressional staff, the President, the Vice
President, and many executive branch political appointees can obtain
health insurance coverage through their federal employment.
The sponsor of S.Amdt. 1866 requested a vote on this amendment and objected to
further consideration of other amendments, which blocked voting on all
other amendments. Shortly after floor debate began, the sponsor introduced
a stand-alone bill (S. 1497) with similar content and expressed a
willingness to drop the objection, if a vote could be “locked down” for S.Amdt. 1866—or
if a vote on the proposal (S. 1497) could be guaranteed for any other active
legislation.
Despite a tentative agreement to take votes on S.Amdt. 1908 and S.Amdt. 1866,
supporters of non-energy amendments increased their requests to include
four additional non-energy amendments. The resulting impasse led to a
suspension of action on September 18, 2013, with no fixed date to resume
action. The Senate then focused attention on passing a
continuing appropriations resolution (CR) and addressing the federal debt
ceiling. Floor managers have indicated that—once the CR, shutdown, health
care, and debt limit issues are resolved—they hope to resume action on S.
1392.
Date of Report: October 25, 2013
Number of Pages: 36
Order Number: R43259
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Carl E. Behrens
Coordinator, Specialist in Energy Policy
The Energy and Water Development appropriations bill provides funding for
civil works projects of the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), for the
Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), the
Department of Energy (DOE), and several independent agencies.
FY2013 Energy and Water Development appropriations were considered in the
context of the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA, P.L. 112-25), which
established discretionary spending limits for FY2012-FY2021. On March 26,
2013, the President signed H.R. 933, the FY2013 Defense and Military
Construction/VA, Full Year Continuing Resolution (P.L. 113-6). The act funds Energy
and Water Development accounts at the FY2012 enacted level for the rest of
FY2013, with some exceptions. However, under BCA, an automatic spending
reduction process, consisting of a combination of sequestration and lower
discretionary spending caps, went into effect March 1, 2013. The effect of
these reductions on the budgetary resources that will ultimately be available to
an agency at the account level remains unclear until further guidance is
provided by the Office of Management and Budget as to how these reductions
should be applied.
President Obama’s FY2014 budget request for Energy and Water Development was
released in April 2013. The request totaled $34.4 billion. On June 26 the
House Appropriations Committee reported a bill, H.R. 2609, with a total of
$30.4 billion; the bill passed the House, with amendments, on July 10. The
Senate Appropriations Committee reported out a bill, S. 1245, on June 27,
with a total of $34.4 billion. On October 16, 2013, Congress passed the
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014, H.R. 2775, P.L. 113-46, extending
funding for all federal programs, including Energy and Water Development,
through January 15, 2014, at the FY2013 postsequestration spending level.
For FY2014, as in previous years, the level of overall spending will be a major
issue. On March 21, 2013, the House passed H.Con.Res. 25, setting FY2014
spending at $2.77 trillion. On March 23, the Senate passed S.Con.Res. 8,
with a spending level for FY2014 of $2.96 trillion. On June 4 the House
Appropriations Committee issued budget allocations for the individual
subcommittees (H.Rept. 113-96). The suballocation for Energy and Water
Development programs was set at $30.4 billion. On June 20 the Senate
Appropriations Committee announced subcommittee allocations for FY2014;
the Energy and Water Development suballocation was $34.8 billion.
In addition to funding levels, issues specific to Energy and Water Development
programs include
-
the distribution of appropriations for Corps (Title I) and Reclamation (Title
II) projects that have historically received congressional appropriations
above Administration requests;
-
alternatives to the proposed national nuclear waste repository at Yucca
Mountain, Nevada, which the Administration has abandoned (Title III:
Nuclear Waste Disposal);
-
proposed FY2014 spending levels for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
programs (Title III) that are more than 50% higher in the Administration’s
request than the amount appropriated for FY2012; and,
-
funding for the nuclear weapons program and other defense activities, which make
up half of the total Department of Energy budget.
Date of Report: October 25, 2013
Number of Pages: 70
Order Number: R43121
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