DOE Budget Boosts Nuclear Weapons Spending, Trims Non-Proliferation, Clean-Up Programs

President Joe Biden’s proposed fiscal year 2025 (FY25) budget request includes a 3.6-percent boost in U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear weapons programs to nearly $20 billion, an all-time high annual expenditure for the department in the 30-year, $1.5 trillion plan to modernize the nation’s strategic nuclear arsenal. During a May 1 hearing before a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel, Republicans argued more money must be committed to DOE and Pentagon nuclear weapons programs and the nation’s strategic policy revised for the first time since the Cold War. Many noted the administration’s DOE and Department of Defense (DOD) FY25 budget requests don’t incorporate any of the 81 recommendations in the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States October 2023 report that said strategic spending and policy are “not sufficient” to meet emerging challenges....