DOE - NNSA

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget increased by $1.5 billion to $22.2 billion for fiscal year 2023, with most of the additional money allocated to plutonium infrastructure projects. Congress also provided significant budget increases for inertial confinement fusion and nuclear nonproliferation.

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget is increasing steadily in support of work to reconstitute plutonium production capabilities and other key infrastructure supporting the nuclear weapons stockpile, though funding for some science programs is under pressure.

House and Senate appropriators largely match the administration’s topline request for the National Nuclear Security Administration for fiscal year 2022 but reject proposed cuts to weapons stockpile science programs while slashing funding for the Stockpile Responsiveness Program.

Within a flat overall budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Biden administration proposes to ramp up funding for plutonium production while paring back certain stockpile R&D activities, such as inertial confinement fusion.

President Biden has nominated former Sandia National Labs Director Jill Hruby and nuclear weapons policy expert Frank Rose to take the top two positions at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Energy agency responsible for maintaining the U.S. nuclear warhead stockpile.

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 authorizes major new initiatives in advanced technologies and makes an array of policy updates aimed at bolstering U.S. private-sector innovation, the defense STEM workforce, and the environmental resilience of military infrastructure and operations.

The National Security Administration budget is surging by $3 billion to nearly $20 billion for fiscal year 2021, with most of the increase directed to modernizing the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile and associated infrastructure.

The Trump administration’s proposed budget surge for the National Nuclear Security Administration is facing headwinds in Congress, with Democrats increasingly questioning the scope and pace of its plans to modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons enterprise.

The House and Senate versions of the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act make significant policy proposals for the National Nuclear Security Administration as well as for the Defense Department’s missile defense and space technology development efforts.

The budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration would continue its recent rapid rise under the Trump administration’s latest proposal for the agency, jumping 18% to just under $20 billion.