Contents

• Introduction and Overview
• Administration Request
• DOE
• USACE and Reclamation
• Independent Agencies
• FY2027 Budgetary Limits
• Key Funding Issues and Initiatives
• Congressionally Directed Funding
• Cancellation and Transfer of IIJA and IRA Appropriations
• Proposed USACE District Salaries and Expenses Account
• Proposed Reductions for Wind, Solar, and Conservation
• New Request for Baseload Power Production
• Proposals to Sell Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve
• Proposed Reductions in DOE Office of Science and ARPA-E, and Other Changes
• Proposed Increase for NNSA Weapons Activities
• Cleanup of Former Nuclear Sites: Adequacy of Proposed Funding
• Proposed Elimination and Reductions at Federal Regional Commissions and Authorities
• FY2027 Budget Request and Recent Annual Appropriations by Account
• Agency Budget Justifications
• Congressional Hearings
• House Appropriations Committee Hearings
• Senate Appropriations Committee Hearings
• Key Policy Staff

Summary

The Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies appropriations (E&W) bill funds civil works activities of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in the Department of Defense; the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and Central Utah Project (CUP); the Department of Energy (DOE); the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC); and several other independent agencies. DOE typically accounts for about 80% of the bill's funding.

Overall Funding Totals

President Donald Trump submitted his FY2027 budget request on April 3, 2026. The request includes $67.597 billion in discretionary appropriations for energy and water development agencies, an increase of $5.866 billion (10%) above the FY2026 enacted amount, excluding emergency appropriations, mandatory appropriations, rescissions, offsets, and adjustments. The E&W budget request for FY2027 includes offsets totaling $4.917 billion from unobligated appropriations transferred from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58).

Selected Key Issues

Zero Funding Request for Wind, Solar, and Hydrogen Research and Development (R&D). No appropriations are requested for FY2027 for Wind, Solar, and Hydrogen R&D, which received $480 million in FY2026.

Proposed Elimination of Federal Regional Commissions and Authorities. All but one of the federal regional commissions and authorities would be terminated by the FY2027 request; the Appalachian Regional Commission annual appropriation would be reduced from $200 million in FY2026 to $120 million in FY2027 (-40%).

Requested Increase for National Nuclear Security Administration. The FY2027 request for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is $7.398 billion (29%) over the FY2026 enacted amount of $25.404 billion. NNSA is a semiautonomous DOE agency responsible for nuclear warheads, nuclear weapons nonproliferation, and naval reactor R&D.

USACE Account Reorganization. The budget request proposes a 36% cut to USACE and a new District Salaries and Expenses account. This account would fund the salaries of USACE district and field office employees, plus other operational costs, separately from direct study and project costs, which would be funded in traditional study and project accounts.

Introduction and Overview

Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies appropriations (E&W) bills typically include funding for civil works activities of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in the Department of Defense (currently using the secondary title Department of War), in Title I; the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and Central Utah Project (CUP), in Title II; the Department of Energy (DOE), in Title III; and a number of independent agencies, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), in Title IV.

President Donald Trump submitted his FY2027 budget request on April 3, 2026.¹ The request includes $67.597 billion in discretionary appropriations for energy and water development agencies.² Figure 1 compares the major components of the E&W budget request for FY2027 and FY2026 and E&W enacted annual appropriations for FY2025 and FY2026. The FY2027 budget request for E&W agencies would be an increase of $5.866 billion (10%) above the FY2026 enacted amount, excluding emergency appropriations, mandatory appropriations, rescissions, offsets, and adjustments. The E&W budget request for FY2027 includes offsets totaling $4.917 billion from unobligated appropriations transferred from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA; P.L. 117-58).

Figure 1. Major Components of Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bills: FY2025 and FY2026 Enacted, and FY2026 and FY2027 Budget Request (nominal dollars)

Sources: President's FY2027 Budget; Agency budget justifications; P.L. 119-74 and H.R. 6938 explanatory statement, https://www.congress.gov/119/crec/2026/01/08/172/5/CREC-2026-01-08-bk3.pdf. Notes: Amounts do not include supplemental appropriations or adjustments, offsets, and rescissions. CUP = Central Utah Project.

The Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026, was signed into law January 23, 2026, as Division B of the Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026 (P.L. 119-74; H.R. 6938). It provided $61.731 billion for E&W agencies, not including rescissions, supplementals, and scorekeeping adjustments. That total is about 1% higher than the comparable appropriation for FY2025. In the 119^th Congress, the FY2025 budget reconciliation measure signed into law on July 4, 2025 (P.L. 119-21), rescinded unobligated DOE advance funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA; P.L. 117-169 ) for specified programs and included supplemental appropriations for Reclamation, DOE defense and loan programs, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Administration Request

Under the Administration's FY2027 request, DOE discretionary appropriations would increase by $10.206 billion (21%), to $59.330 billion, including a proposed $7.063 billion (35%) increase for nuclear weapons activities. The request would cancel $15.247 billion in unobligated balances of DOE appropriations provided by the IIJA.³ USACE funding would be reduced by $3.772 billion (-36%), to $6.663 billion, and Reclamation and CUP funding would decline by $358 million (-22%), to $1.292 billion.⁴ Appropriations for independent agencies in the bill would be reduced by $209 million (-40%), to $312 million, including rescissions of previous appropriations. These totals generally exclude adjustments and offsets.⁵

DOE

DOE's major program areas include energy, science, defense, and environmental management. The Trump Administration reorganized the former offices of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and Fossil Fuels into the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI) and the Office of Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy (HGE). For CMEI, the request proposes to reduce FY2027 comparable funding from $1.883 billion in FY2026 to $1.122 billion in FY2027, a reduction of $762 million (-40%). HGE would be comparably increased from $647 million to $676 million (4%). Within CMEI, no appropriations are requested in FY2027 under Integrated Energy Systems for wind and solar R&D, down from $320 million in FY2026. Zero funding is also requested for two other elements of the CMEI appropriations account: the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP), which received $25 million in FY2026, and the Office of State and Community Energy Programs (SCEP), which provides low-income weatherization and state planning grants and received $435 million in FY2026.

A new $3.500 billion appropriations account for Baseload Power, to be funded with proposed transfers of IIJA unobligated balances, would be used by various DOE offices to provide firm baseload electricity—generated by coal, natural gas, geothermal, nuclear, and hydropower. The initiative is intended to prevent what the request says is the planned retirement of about 9 gigawatts of baseload capacity and provide 9 gigawatts to 13 gigawatts of power plant upgrades and new capacity.

Funding for DOE's Office of Science in FY2027 is proposed to decrease by $1.111 billion (-13%) to $7.139 billion from the FY2026 enacted amount of $8.250 billion. The Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program would see the largest percentage reduction within the Office of Science, from $854 million in FY2026 to $396 million (-54%) in FY2027. Particularly, no FY2027 funding is requested for BER research in environmental system sciences and atmospheric system research. The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility would not be funded in FY2027. Those eliminations were also proposed for FY2026 but not enacted.

The Administration requests $200 million in FY2027 for the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), which supports research on technologies it considers high-risk but potentially transformative. This would be a reduction of $150 million (-43%) from $350 million enacted for FY2026. The request includes $1.200 billion for a new Office of Artificial Intelligence and Quantum (AIQ), which is to oversee the Genesis Mission to create an integrated research platform of "the world's best supercomputers, experimental facilities, AI systems, and unique datasets across every major scientific domain" to support research on artificial intelligence and quantum energy systems.⁶ The funding for AIQ would come from IIJA unobligated balances.

Funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a semiautonomous DOE agency responsible for nuclear warheads, nuclear weapons nonproliferation, and naval reactor R&D, is proposed to increase by $7.398 billion (29%) over the FY2026 enacted amount of $25.404 billion. NNSA's largest appropriations account, Weapons Activities, would rise from $20.378 billion to $27.441 billion, an increase of $7.063 billion (35%). The FY2025 budget reconciliation measure (P.L. 119-21) appropriated $3.885 billion for NNSA for FY2025, to remain available through FY2029, affecting FY2027 funding. Environmental Management (waste management and cleanup) would decrease by $386 million (-5%) under the Administration request, from $8.562 billion in FY2026 to $8.176 billion in FY2027.

USACE and Reclamation

USACE uses most of its appropriations on specific water resources studies and projects authorized by Congress. The FY2027 request includes $6.663 billion for USACE, which is $3.772 billion less than the $10.435 billion provided for FY2026. The Administration also proposes different accounts compared with FY2026, including a District Salaries and Expenses (S&E) account. Most of the proposed FY2027 reduction for Reclamation would come from Reclamation's largest account, Water and Related Resources, which supports the development and operation of water supplies for irrigation, hydroelectric generation, and environmental quality. The FY2027 budget would reduce that account by $354 million (-24%) compared with FY2026 annual appropriations.

Independent Agencies

Among the independent agencies in the E&W bill, funding for five federal regional commissions and authorities (FRCAs) would be eliminated under the President's FY2027 request. FRCAs use appropriations to provide economic development and energy reliability and security grants in their respective regions. Slated for defunding are the Delta Regional Authority, Great Lakes Authority, Northern Border Regional Commission, Southwest Border Regional Commission, and Southeast Crescent Regional Commission, along with a cancellation of $150 million in previously appropriated funds for these and other FRCAs.⁷ The FRCA that has historically received the largest annual appropriation, the Appalachian Regional Commission, would be reduced from $200 million in FY2026 to $120 million in FY2027 (-40%).

NRC, the largest E&W independent agency, was recommended to receive $892 million under the FY2027 request, a decrease of $79 million (-9%) over the FY2026 enacted amount. NRC licenses and regulates nuclear reactors and radioactive materials. As required by law, NRC's FY2027 funding is to be offset by fees paid by the nuclear industry, estimated at $756 million, for a net appropriation of $136 million.

FY2027 Budgetary Limits

Congressional consideration of the annual Energy and Water Development appropriations bill is affected by certain procedural and statutory budget enforcement requirements. These consist primarily of procedural limits on discretionary spending (the total spending provided in annual appropriations acts) established in a budget resolution or through some other means, and allocations of this amount that applied to spending under the jurisdiction of each appropriations subcommittee. FY2027 allocations had not been determined by the date of this report.

For more information on funding ceilings, see CRS Report R46468, A Brief Overview of the Congressional Budget Process, by James V. Saturno.

Key Funding Issues and Initiatives

Several issues have drawn particular attention during congressional consideration of Energy and Water Development appropriations for FY2027. The issues described in this section—listed approximately in the order the affected agencies or provisions typically appear in Energy and Water Development bills—were selected based on total funding involved, percentage of proposed increases or decreases, amount of congressional interest engendered, and potential impact on broader public policy considerations. Additional relevant CRS products are noted in the following sections, as applicable.

Congressionally Directed Funding

The 119^th Congress, largely continuing the policies of the previous two Congresses, is allowing congressionally directed funding, also known as earmarks, for site-specific projects and other activities in the appropriations process. These are referred to as "community project funding" (CPF) in the House and "congressionally directed spending" (CDS) in the Senate. From the 112^th through the 116^th Congresses, moratorium policies largely prohibited earmarks for such projects.⁸ Figure 2 shows enacted CPF/CDS amounts per agency for FY2022 through FY2024, and FY2026. The patterned area of the stacked columns indicates the sum of the three highest funded CPF/CDS items (all under USACE appropriations). For FY2025, P.L. 119-4 did not fund earmarks.⁹

Figure 2. Energy and Water Development CPF/CDS Total Enacted Funding from FY2022 Through FY2026 (nominal dollars)

Sources: P.L. 119-4 and Community Project Funding (CPF)/Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) tables in explanatory statements accompanying enacted annual appropriations for FY2022 through FY2026. Note: The patterned area of the stacked columns indicates the sum of the three highest funded CPF/CDS items (all under U.S. Army Corps of Engineers appropriations). For FY2025, P.L. 119-4 did not fund earmarks.

For FY2027, House and Senate appropriations committees provided instructions to Members for requesting CPF and CDS, respectively. The House and Senate allowed CPF and CDS requests only for certain Reclamation and USACE accounts under E&W.¹⁰ For previous fiscal years, the Senate allowed CDS requests for DOE that were funded in the "Energy Projects" account, but for FY2027, the Senate appropriations committees did not allow such requests.¹¹

Cancellation and Transfer of IIJA and IRA Appropriations

The Administration's FY2027 request calls for cancellation of $15.247 billion of IIJA advance appropriations for renewable energy, carbon capture from the air, electric vehicles and batteries, FRCAs, "and other costly technologies burdensome to ratepayers and consumers."¹² Those proposed cancellations include $588 million in unobligated balances for carbon dioxide sequestration pipelines and related transportation projects under the Carbon Dioxide Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Program established by IIJA Section 40304.

Separately, P.L. 119-21, the FY2025 budget reconciliation measure, rescinded all unobligated balances of IRA appropriations, some of which had been available for several DOE programs in FY2027.

Proposed USACE District Salaries and Expenses Account

The Administration proposes altering budgeting of USACE district salaries and expenses. In previous budget requests and appropriations acts, study and project accounts (i.e., Investigations, Construction, Operation and Maintenance [O&M], and Mississippi River and Tributaries accounts) composed the majority of the funding, which included the district salaries and expenses of those activities. For FY2027, the budget request includes a new account, District Salaries and Expenses, to fund the salaries of USACE district and field office employees, plus other operational costs, separately from direct project costs.¹³ For example, the budget request for the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, LA, is split with $5 million in the O&M account and $15 million in the District S&E account, for a total of $20 million for the project.¹⁴ The request for the proposed District S&E account is $2.429 billion, making up 36% of the total amount requested for USACE.¹⁵

The FY2027 budget request notes the new District S&E account as a central feature of the request and part of the Administration's "District Salary Transparency initiative."¹⁶ USACE states that the proposed account is a policy change to emphasize delivery, transparency, and accountability, and that "this new approach will realign incentives to focus on building infrastructure on time and within budget." Congress may consider how the proposed district S&E accounting could alter project delivery and agency accountability, and whether to fund the S&E separately as proposed. For more discussion and information on the FY2027 budget request for USACE, see CRS In Focus IF13212, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: FY2027 Appropriations, by Anna E. Normand and Nicole T. Carter.

Proposed Reductions for Wind, Solar, and Conservation

The request would reduce funding for Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI) from $1.122 billion in FY2027 to a comparable amount of $1.883 billion in FY2026, down $762 million (-40%). CMEI was created from the former Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by adding critical minerals programs and moving geothermal research to the Office of Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy (formerly Fossil Energy).

The request opposes federal support for "intermittent energy sources" such as wind and solar in favor of "24/7 energy that underpins a secure grid."¹⁷ Within CMEI, no appropriations are requested in FY2027 under Integrated Energy Systems for wind and solar R&D, down from $320 million in FY2026. Zero funding is also requested for two other elements of the CMEI appropriations account that together received $460 million in FY2026: the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) and the Office of State and Community Energy Programs (SCEP), which provide low-income weatherization and state planning grants. The budget request also proposes to zero out Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies (a program element within Alternative Fuels and Feedstocks), which received $160 million in FY2026.

Also within CMEI, the Administration requests steep reductions for FY2027 compared with FY2026 levels for Transportation Technologies (formerly Vehicle Technologies), from $397 million to $20 million (-95%); Bioenergy Technologies (now part of Alternative Fuels and Feedstocks), from $245 million to $10 million (-96%); and Building Technologies, from $288 million to $20 million (-93%).

New Request for Baseload Power Production

DOE's FY2027 budget proposal includes a new $3.500 billion appropriations account for Baseload Power, to be funded with proposed transfers of IIJA unobligated balances, that would be used by various DOE offices to provide firm baseload electricity—generated by coal, natural gas, geothermal, nuclear, and hydropower. The initiative is intended to prevent what the request says is the planned retirement of about 9 gigawatts of baseload capacity and provide from 9 gigawatts to 13 gigawatts of power plant upgrades and new capacity, according to the budget justification.

The Baseload Power initiative is consistent with the Trump Administration's opposition to federal support for intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. The budget request would provide $1.940 billion for electricity production from coal, gas, and geothermal. The funds would be used for upgrading existing coal, natural gas, and geothermal plants and expanding gas pipelines and related facilities. The request also includes $750 million for reconductoring transmission lines—replacing their wires using advanced materials—and $300 million to upgrade nuclear power plants and fuel.¹⁸

Proposals to Sell Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve

The DOE budget request proposes to close the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve (NEHHOR). The 1 million barrels of ultra-low-sulfur heating oil in NEHHOR would be sold, and leases for storage facilities closed out, by FY2029. The FY2027 NEHHOR appropriation would be half of the $7 million provided for FY2026.¹⁹ The Administration also proposed terminating the NEHHOR in FY2026, but Congress continued the program's funding.

Proposed Reductions in DOE Office of Science and ARPA-E, and Other Changes

The Administration proposes to reduce funding for the Office of Science to $7.139 billion (-13%) from FY2026. The Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program would see the largest reduction in funding, from $854 million to $396 million (-54%).²⁰ This reduction is similar in size to the Administration's FY2026 request. Within BER, Earth and Environmental Systems Sciences would see a reduction of $341 million, including the elimination of funding for the atmospheric system research and environmental system sciences programs and closure of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility. Under the FY2027 request, all BER activities related to earth and environmental systems science would be funded under earth systems modeling. That program, according to the budget request, would "focus on harnessing AI to accelerate, enhance and couple BER's suite of exascale class and multi-sector dynamics models and integrate atmospheric and environmental field observations to enhance weeks to years predictive skill for energy expansion."²¹ The request would also reduce biological systems science by $133 million, with the largest reduction (-$124 million) coming from the genomic science program.²² The DOE budget justification says the request "reduces lower priority efforts while focusing support on the Genesis Mission and integrating AI to accelerate biotechnology innovation and CMM (critical minerals and materials) recovery and supporting key quantum science research for imaging and sensing to align with Administration priorities."²³

The overall $50 million (-6%) decrease in the fusion energy sciences program is specifically focused on the U.S. contribution to ITER²⁴ (-$93 million); with the rest of the program budget that supports fusion energy research increasing by about $43 million.²⁵ On November 20, 2025, DOE announced an organizational realignment that established an Office of Fusion within the responsibilities of the Under Secretary for Science.²⁶ For FY2027, the budget requests $10 million for the new Office of Fusion, which, according to DOE, will coordinate all fusion-related activities within DOE and develop "a national strategy to close scientific and technological gaps on the critical path toward developing, deploying and commercializing fusion energy."²⁷

The recently established Office of Artificial Intelligence and Quantum (AIQ),²⁸ within the responsibilities of the Under Secretary for Science, would receive $1.200 billion under the Administration's FY2027 request.²⁹ The stated mission of the AIQ is "to oversee the Department's Genesis Mission through collaboration and coordination of federal government, national laboratories, and industry in support of the U.S. AI and quantum research investments." According to the budget request, the AIQ repurposes prior year unobligated Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funding.³⁰

Separately, under the Office of Science, the proposed FY2027 budget requests $1.104 billion for the Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) program, a reduction of $12 million compared with FY2026.³¹ According to the request, "ASCR is coordinating closely with AIQ in the development, deployment, and management of the Genesis Mission supercomputing partnerships and quantum investments under AIQ's purview, and ASCR's user facilities, the American Science Cloud, and other ASCR investments are being leveraged by AIQ to deploy and manage Genesis Mission computing resources."³²

Under the FY2027 budget request, the Advanced Research Project Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) would see a 43% reduction in its budget from FY2026 enacted levels ($350 million). The $200 million requested by the Administration in FY2027 is the same amount requested in FY2026.³³

Proposed Increase for NNSA Weapons Activities

The FY2027 budget request would increase NNSA by $7.398 billion (29%) over the FY2026 enacted amount of $25.404 billion. NNSA's largest appropriations account, Weapons Activities, would rise from $20.378 billion to $27.441 billion, for an increase of $7.063 billion (35%).

For Weapons Activities, the requested FY2027 amounts for nuclear warhead modernization programs, which include proposed reconciliation funding, include the following:³⁴

• No funding for the B61-12 Life Extension Program (LEP), a decrease from $16 million in FY2026. NNSA intends to complete and close out modernization of the B61-12 LEP, which combines four existing variants of the B61 gravity bomb, in FY2026.
• $46 million for the B61-13 variant of the B61 gravity bomb, $3 million less than enacted for FY2026. NNSA has begun delivering this B61 variant, intended for strikes on harder and larger-area military targets, to the U.S. Air Force.³⁵
• No funding for the W88 Alteration 370 program, for which $64 million was enacted in FY2025 and none in FY2026. NNSA stated that it would complete and close out this program with carryover funding. The W88 warhead is carried on a portion of the D-5 (Trident) submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).
• $1.048 billion for the W80-4 LEP, a decrease of $211 million (-17%) from the FY2026 enacted amount, intended for the warhead that will be mounted on the Long-Range Standoff (LRSO) cruise missile.³⁶ NNSA expects the first production unit of this warhead in FY2027.
• $913 million for development engineering activities in the W87-1 warhead modification program, an increase of $264 million (41%) from FY2026. The Air Force plans to deploy the W87-1 on the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).³⁷
• $1.106 billion for the W93 warhead, an increase of $299 million (37%) from the FY2026 enacted amount. NNSA expects that the W93, a warhead intended for deployment on SLBMs, will enter development engineering in FY2027.
• An undetermined amount for development engineering of the warhead (W80-5) for the nuclear sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N), to be taken from mandatory funding in the FY2025 budget reconciliation measure (P.L. 119-21), as noted below.

NNSA is implementing seven warhead programs and, according to the budget submission, plans to "authorize new future concept programs."³⁸ NNSA is also engaged in intensive efforts to recapitalize its production infrastructure, including for the manufacture of plutonium pits (warhead cores), central components of nuclear warheads. NNSA plans to develop pit production capacity at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. Pit production is included in NNSA's FY2027 budget under Plutonium Modernization, for which NNSA requests $4.912 billion for FY2027, an increase of $2.280 billion (87%) from the FY2026 enacted level of $2.633 billion.³⁹

The FY2025 budget reconciliation measure (P.L. 119-21) appropriated $3.885 billion for NNSA for FY2025, to remain available through FY2029:

• $200 million for Phase 1 studies;
• $540 million for deferred maintenance and repair;
• $1 billion for construction;
• $400 million for the sea-launched cruise missile nuclear warhead;
• $750 million for modernization of facilities for nuclear warhead primary stages;
• $750 million for modernization of facilities for nuclear warhead secondary stages;
• $120 million for uranium enrichment centrifuge deployment;
• $10 million for spent nuclear fuel reprocessing evaluation; and
• $115 million for artificial intelligence.

Appropriations for NNSA nuclear weapons activities and other defense programs typically align with the amounts authorized in annual National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAAs). For FY2026, see Division C of H.R. 3838 (H.Rept. 119-231), S. 2296 (S.Rept. 119-39), and the passed bill (S. 1071; P.L. 119-60) and accompanying explanatory statement for additional detail.⁴⁰ For more information, see CRS Report R47657, Energy and Water Development Appropriations for Nuclear Weapons Activities: In Brief, by Anya L. Fink.

Cleanup of Former Nuclear Sites: Adequacy of Proposed Funding

DOE Environmental Management funding would decrease by $386 million (5%) under the Administration request, from $8.562 billion in FY2026 to $8.176 billion in FY2027. Environmental Management funding at DOE's largest cleanup site, the Hanford Site in Washington state (including the Office of River Protection), would decline from $3.348 billion to $2.954 billion, a reduction of $394 million (12%). EM funding at the Oak Ridge site in Tennessee would drop by $98 million (14%), from $701 million to $604 million.⁴¹

The proposed reductions at the Hanford site have drawn criticism from Members of Congress in the Pacific Northwest. For example, Senator Murray on the Senate floor April 16, 2026, accused the Administration of "trying to shortchange the Hanford cleanup."⁴² The DOE budget justification says that the requested amount "supports risk reduction" at the site, including treating and removing highly radioactive waste in underground tanks "as well as waste site and facility remediation."⁴³

DOE's Office of Environmental Management (EM) is responsible for environmental cleanup and waste management at the department's nuclear facilities. The EM budget consists of three appropriations accounts: Defense Environmental Cleanup, which finances the cleanup of former nuclear weapons production sites; Non-Defense Environmental Cleanup, which funds the cleanup of federal nuclear energy research sites; and the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund (UED&D).

In addition to the proposed Hanford budget reductions, the adequacy of funding for the Office of Environmental Management to attain cleanup milestones across the entire site inventory has been a recurring issue. Cleanup milestones are enforceable measures incorporated into compliance agreements negotiated among DOE, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the states. These milestones establish time frames for the completion of specific actions to satisfy applicable requirements at individual sites.

Proposed Elimination and Reductions at Federal Regional Commissions and Authorities

Funding for five of the six active federal regional commissions and authorities (FRCAs) would be eliminated under the President's FY2027 request. A similar proposal was received by Congress in the FY2026 request and not adopted.⁴⁴ The budget request proposes terminating five FRCAs:

• Delta Regional Authority (DRA),
• Denali Commission,
• Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC),
• Southwest Border Regional Commission (SBRC), and
• Southeast Crescent Regional Commission (SCRC).

The President's FY2027 request calls for the cancellation of unobligated balances from prior-year appropriations for one inactive FRCA (Great Lakes Authority);⁴⁵ does not provide funding for the Northwest Regional Commission, which received its first appropriation in the FY2026 E&W measure and is also inactive;⁴⁶ provides $7 million for the Denali Commission for closeout purposes; instructs four other FRCAs to use prior-year unobligated balances to conduct an orderly closeout of the entities; and provides reduced funding for the ARC that is to be expended within two years. However, unlike the funding for the other five active FRCAs, the funding for ARC is not provided for closeout purposes. The request also proposes to end the annual transfer of interest from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to the Denali Commission.⁴⁷

The eight FRCAs that received funding in FY2026 include the (1) ARC, (2) DRA, (3) Denali Commission, (4) GLA, (5) NBRC, (6) Northwest Regional Commission, (7) SBRC, and (8) SCRC.⁴⁸ Six of the FRCAs that received FY2026 appropriations are considered active (ARC, DRA, Denali Commission, NBRC, SBRC, SCRC).⁴⁹ The FY2026 E&W measure also provided $5 million for the GLA and $1 million for the Northwest Regional Commission, which were inactive as of May 2026.⁵⁰

FRCAs have been previously proposed for elimination in presidential budgets, but have continued to receive subsequent appropriations from Congress. For instance, in May 2025, the President's FY2026 budget request proposed closeout budgets for most of the FRCAs. As noted, the enacted FY2026 E&W measure continued funding for FRCA programs and administrative expenses at 1% over FY2025 enacted levels.

FY2027 Budget Request and Recent Annual Appropriations by Account

The annual Energy and Water Development appropriations bill titles are shown in Table 1. These titles include Title I—Corps of Engineers—Civil; Title II—Department of the Interior (Bureau of Reclamation and Central Utah Project); Title III—Department of Energy; and Title IV—Independent Agencies. Recent annual appropriations and the FY2026 and FY2027 budget requests for E&W accounts under these titles are shown in the accompanying tables. Additional appropriations for these agencies, such as from supplemental appropriations acts, are not presented in this section.

For additional details about the agencies and accounts funded by E&W appropriations acts, and changes to various accounts and their programs, as applicable, see CRS Report R48599, Energy and Water Development: FY2026 Appropriations, by Mark Holt and Anna E. Normand. For a discussion of selected current funding issues related to these accounts and programs, see "Key Funding Issues and Initiatives," above. Congressional clients may obtain more detailed information by contacting CRS analysts listed at the end of this report and listed in CRS Report R42638, Appropriations: CRS Experts, by James M. Specht and Justin Murray.

Agency Budget Justifications

Selected FY2027 budget justifications for the largest agencies funded by the annual Energy and Water Development appropriations bill can be found through the links below. The justifications provide detailed descriptions and funding breakouts for accounts, programs, projects, and activities under the agencies' jurisdiction, in addition to the Budget of the U.S. Government Appendix, Fiscal Year 2027, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/appendix_fy2027.pdf.

Title I: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Civil Works, https://www.usace.army.mil/missions/civil-works/budget (see Table 2)

Title II (see Table 2):

• Bureau of Reclamation, https://www.usbr.gov/budget
• Central Utah Project, https://www.doi.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2026-04/fy2027greenbookcupca.pdf

Title III: Department of Energy, https://www.energy.gov/cfo/articles/fy-2027-budget-justification (see Table 3)

Title IV: Independent Agencies (see Table 3)

• Appalachian Regional Commission, https://www.arc.gov/budget-performance-and-policy
• Delta Regional Authority, https://dra.gov/accountability/congressional-budget-justification
• Denali Commission, https://www.denali.gov/finance/congressional-budget-justifications
• Southeast Crescent Regional Commission, https://scrc.gov/Accountability/congressional-justification
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission, https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1100
• Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, https://www.dnfsb.gov/about/congressional-budget-requests
• Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, http://www.nwtrb.gov/about-us/plans
• Southwest Border Regional Commission, https://sbrc.gov/congressional-justification

Congressional Hearings

The following hearings were held by the Energy and Water Development subcommittees of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on the FY2027 budget request. Testimony and opening statements are posted on most of the web pages cited for each hearing, along with webcasts in many cases.

House Appropriations Committee Hearings

• Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation, April 16, 2026, https://appropriations.house.gov/schedule/hearings/budget-hearing-army-corps-engineers-and-bureau-reclamation
• Department of Energy, April 15, 2026, https://appropriations.house.gov/schedule/hearings/budget-hearing-department-energy

Senate Appropriations Committee Hearings

• National Nuclear Security Administration, April 29, 2026, https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/a-review-of-the-presidents-fiscal-year-2027-budget-request-for-the-national-nuclear-security-administration
• Department of Energy, April 22, 2026, https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/a-review-of-the-presidents-fiscal-year-2027-budget-request-for-the-department-of-energy

Key Policy Staff

Footnotes