House Passes First Spending Bill Under New Speaker

The U.S. Capitol building in Washington on Oct. 3, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The House of Representatives passed a bill on Oct. 26 to fund energy and water agenda items — the first bill passed under new Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

The appropriations bill passed along party lines, 210-199.

It is the third appropriations bill the House has passed, following Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Defense appropriations bills.

The Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies measure allocates $57.958 billion toward such initiatives. This is almost $2 billion less than what the Biden administration requested.

The bill includes “$19.114 billion for the continued modernization of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile and infrastructure”; “$1.946 billion for Naval Reactors to support the operational nuclear fleet, Columbia-class submarine reactor development, and research and development for current and future generations of nuclear-powered warships”; and “$2.38 billion for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation to reduce the danger of hostile nations or terrorist groups acquiring nuclear devices, radiological dispersal devices, weapons-usable material, and nuclear expertise.”

The measure also repeals $5.58 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act, which included green energy policies that critics said were wins for China.

Numerous amendments were added to the bill, including one to prohibit funding of the American Climate Corps—a repudiation of the Biden administration’s climate change agenda. However, many other amendments were rejected, including ones to lower the salaries of senior administration officials, including Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, through a mechanism called the Holman Rule, which effectively allows Congress to fire bureaucrats by lowering their salary to $1.

“My Energy and Water bill makes America safer, more energy secure and increases our global economic competitiveness,” posted Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) on X, formerly Twitter. Mr. Fleischmann is the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Water.

Nonetheless, the bill goes to the Senate, where it is likely dead on arrival.

The House has nine more appropriations bills to pass in order to pass all 12 appropriations bills. Government funding expires on Nov. 17 following a 45-day continuing resolution that passed last month to fund the government at current levels — something that led to the ouster of Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

The energy bill was not the first one passed by the GOP-controlled House. Earlier this year, the House passed a bill, which was dead on arrival in the Senate, that seeks to make the United States energy independent as Republicans and conservatives have criticized the Biden administration for not utilizing American energy such as oil and instead relying on alternative sources of energy and getting oil from abroad including Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, the latter of which had energy sanctions relaxed on it by the administration.