Congressional committee leaders request GAO review of recent NRC budgeting, management activities

A bicameral group of congressional committee leaders sent a letter this week to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to request a review of recent changes in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) planning, budgeting, and financial management activities.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR), Subcommittee on Energy Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY) and Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Chairman Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV) signed the letter to GAO Comptroller General Gene Dodaro.

Recent GAO reports recommended action to improve NRC’s fee-setting process, fee-billing process, budget justification documentation, and workforce planning and more. The committee leaders’ letter requests that GAO conduct a review of NRC’s implementation of these recommendations.

“While NRC has launched some initiatives, it is unclear the extent to which NRC has completed these efforts and the extent to which these actions have resulted in the anticipated process improvements,” Walden, Upton, Barrasso, and Capito wrote.

The letter follows the advancement of H.R. 1320, the Nuclear Utilization of Keynote Energy Act, by the House last month. Authored by Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Mike Doyle (D-PA), H.R. 1320 revises the NRC’s fee recovery structure and aims to increase the predictability, transparency, and efficiency of the NRC’s regulatory processes.