HR4553-119

What This Bill Does

H.R. 4553 is the House's Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026 proposal. It passed the House on September 4, 2025 and was placed on the Senate calendar on September 10; the official record shows no enactment or later text. Congress instead enacted FY2026 Energy and Water appropriations in division B of Public Law 119-74 on January 23, 2026. The figures below describe H.R. 4553 as passed by the House, not additional money now available on top of that law, and not necessarily increases over prior funding.

The proposal funds Army Corps civil works; Interior's Bureau of Reclamation and Central Utah Project; Department of Energy civilian programs, nuclear weapons and cleanup; power marketing and energy regulators; and regional development commissions. Most program money remains available until spent, but many administrative accounts and program-direction portions expire September 30, 2027. The bill also carries water-program authorizations and restrictions concerning foreign-linked contractors, firearms, federal building energy standards, diversity programs, marriage-related beliefs, COVID mandates, speech-classification activities and federal rulemaking. The proposal's original clause inventory missed its unnumbered accounts; this analysis includes all 60 substantive account/administrative paragraphs, the missing numbered provisions, and 12 House account amendments.

Major House amounts include Corps construction of $2.557 billion, operation and maintenance of $6.143 billion, investigations of $200 million, Mississippi River and Tributaries work of $490 million, and flood/coastal emergencies of $42.5 million. Reclamation Water and Related Resources receives $1.710630 billion. DOE Science receives $8.4 billion, Nuclear Energy $1.795 billion before separately specified transfers, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy $1.83 billion, Fossil Energy $694.375 million, and ARPA-E $350 million. Nuclear-security amounts include $20.661993 billion for Weapons Activities, $1.993060 billion for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation and $2.171023 billion for Naval Reactors. Defense Environmental Cleanup receives $6.521396 billion. These are account amounts, not a single safely additive net-spending total: fee offsets, trust-fund sources, interaccount transfers and a $9.422 million prior-year rescission require separate treatment.

Who Benefits and How

Corps construction and dredging contractors gain potential federally financed work; port users, flood-exposed communities and visitors benefit from maintained navigation, protection and recreation infrastructure. Western water districts, farmers, Tribal communities and water users gain potential support for water reliability, restoration and authorized projects. Named beneficiaries include the Central Utah Project, San Gabriel Basin Restoration Fund, Rio Grande Pueblos irrigation work, and the Navajo-Gallup water project, although several authorization changes were subsequently enacted separately and are not new incremental benefits today.

DOE laboratories, research universities, energy research firms and nuclear-security contractors receive support under the proposed account funding. Nuclear demonstration recipients are favored by a separate $5.104132548 billion transfer from existing unobligated infrastructure-law balances, including clean-energy, carbon-transport and other nuclear balances. Eligible small modular and advanced nuclear reactor projects also gain access to $150 million for loan-guarantee subsidy costs, not $150 million of total loan principal. Nuclear cleanup contractors and nearby communities gain potential remediation support. Regional commissions support eligible development projects; Denali funding retains distinct distressed-community/Tribal and other-community cost-share limits.

Other benefits are regulatory or protective rather than payments. Eligible firearm possessors would gain state-law-compliant possession access at covered Corps projects. Certain individuals and organizations acting on a sincerely held one-man/one-woman marriage belief receive protection against specified federal adverse actions, including tax, grant, employment and licensing consequences. Host governments and affected Tribes receive a consent safeguard for the covered privately arranged spent-fuel storage agreements. The seven specified Lake Sidney Lanier campgrounds receive protection against closure using these funds, not guaranteed new staffing or an unrestricted right to remain open under every law.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Programs losing unobligated balances to the nuclear transfer have less money available for their original purposes: the specified efficiency/renewable programs, other nuclear activities, carbon capture demonstrations, carbon-dioxide transport financing and selected clean-energy demonstrations. DOE Departmental Administration falls by a net $14.375 million from the reported bill's gross account amount to $290.278 million; the same House changes add $2 million to Corps construction, $3 million to Corps operation and maintenance, $2.5 million to flood/coastal emergencies and $6.875 million to Fossil Energy. Paired increases and decreases in other accounts have zero net account change; the text does not identify separate recipients for those pairs.

Foreign entities covered by the bill's precise tests lose access to certain DOE awards, SPR purchases or office-equipment procurements. Covered award applicants must provide risk-review documentation, and covered Russian or Chinese noncitizen visitors face a 30-day congressional-notice condition for nonpublic nuclear-weapons production areas, not a universal nationality ban. Corps, Reclamation, DOE and NRC face account-specific allocation, reprogramming, notification and reporting rules. San Luis Unit drainage beneficiaries must reimburse future covered drainage services or studies; specified cleanup repayments continue. FERC and NRC retain fee-funded cost recovery, so a low net Treasury appropriation is not cost-free regulation for fee payers.

Federal diversity-program providers lose covered funding. Same-sex spouses and service users may face reduced access to the specified federal enforcement or funding remedies where protected marriage-belief conduct is involved; the text does not repeal marriage recognition generally. People relying on covered major-rule protections, federal building emissions standards or government-supported information work may lose those interventions. Effects on safety, health, speech and consumer welfare depend on implementation and are not quantified. Most riders restrict use of specified appropriations rather than amend every underlying statute or bind purely private conduct. Congress later enacted different FY2026 terms, and DOE has separately stayed the cited building-rule compliance date until March 1, 2027.

Key Provisions

• Provides Corps account funding with work-plan constraints: $200 million investigations, $2.557 billion construction, $490 million Mississippi River and Tributaries, $6.143 billion operation and maintenance, $221 million regulatory work through September 2027, $42.5 million flood/coastal emergencies, $226 million administration and $6 million for the Assistant Secretary. The $5 million water-infrastructure financing account amount is administrative funding, not a new loan-principal commitment. Specified harbor and inland-waterway trust funds finance portions, rather than add a second appropriation.
• Requires Corps reprogramming controls and a 60-day baseline report, with category-specific thresholds and emergency operation-and-maintenance flexibility. It authorizes up to $8.733 million to Fish and Wildlife for fisheries mitigation, conditions Lake Erie open-water dredged-material placement on state water-quality certification, bars the specified Lake Cumberland reallocation study, and restricts Confederate-commemoration removal spending for civil works. Section 108 expressly continues lawful, state-compliant firearm-possession protection in subsequent fiscal years.
• Provides $23 million for the Central Utah completion account, including $4 million for its mitigation/conservation account; $1.710630 billion for Reclamation Water and Related Resources, including $3.237 million for the San Gabriel Basin fund; $32 million for California Bay-Delta restoration; and $64 million for Reclamation administration. The Central Valley Project Restoration Fund uses actual statutory collections rather than a stated fixed appropriation. Section 202 preserves a California water-quality planning prerequisite and repayment obligations for San Luis drainage.
• Expands proposed water authorizations: WIIN storage authority to 2027, coordinated-operations consultation to December 16, 2034, and specified construction exceptions tied to December 16, 2026; water-recycling authorization from $50 million to $177.5 million; and desalination authorization from $30 million to $106.5 million. Those last figures are program authorization ceilings, not per-project grants or new cash appropriations. Existing project designation, cost-sharing and environmental conditions are not erased.
• Amends other water authorities on the face of the bill: WaterSMART-related authority from $920 million to $1 billion; CALFED dates to 2026 and its specified authorization from $30 million to $35 million; Rio Grande Pueblos authority to 2026; drought-relief authority to $130 million; and Northwestern New Mexico authority to $1.815 billion with a 2026 date. Public Law 119-74 already enacted several of these changes, with CALFED instead set to $32.6 million and different drafting for the Navajo-Gallup amount. Do not add those authorizations twice or silently repair stale replacement instructions.
• Provides civilian DOE funding beyond the headline accounts: cybersecurity/emergency response $200 million, Electricity $225 million, Grid Deployment $25 million, energy information $135 million, nondefense cleanup $337.7 million, uranium-enrichment cleanup $844.38 million, nuclear-waste disposal $12.04 million, Indian Energy $75 million, and DOE Inspector General $90 million. SPR operations receive $294.628 million, the separate SPR Petroleum Account $100,000, the Northeast heating-oil reserve $7.15 million and naval petroleum reserves $13 million. Electricity commercialization/small-business balances have an express section 301 reprogramming exception.
• Transfers exactly $5.104132548 billion of unobligated infrastructure-law balances to eligible nuclear demonstrations: $672,652,992 from specified efficiency/renewable programs, $981,479,556 from Nuclear Energy, $1 billion from the specified fossil-energy carbon-capture program, $1.5 billion from carbon-dioxide transport financing, and $950 million from specified clean-energy demonstrations. Uses are the stated up-to-two Generation 3+ small-modular-reactor awards, two previously awarded advanced-reactor demonstrations and risk reduction. This is a transfer, not a new $5.104 billion Treasury appropriation or a grant to a named company in the text.
• Provides $150 million in nuclear loan-guarantee subsidy costs plus $35 million in Title 17 administration, with administrative fee offsets, no debt subordination, restrictions on other federal project support, stated tax/land/insurance/transmission exceptions and advance OMB certification. Vehicle-manufacturing and Tribal energy loan-program amounts of $13 million and $6.3 million are administrative, not additional face-value lending authority.
• Provides nuclear defense funding, including a $96.74 million transfer from Naval Reactors to Nuclear Energy for the Advanced Test Reactor, $500 million NNSA federal salaries, and $1.179950 billion Other Defense Activities. The $9.422 million nonproliferation rescission applies to prior unobligated balances, not a second reduction of the stated new account appropriation. Independent high-hazard nuclear safety oversight, separate estimates before specified decisions on projects over $100 million, and internal management procedures for covered assistance over $100 million are required.
• Requires DOE advance notification for specified awards of $1 million or more and direct nonoperational laboratory funding of $25 million or more; lower grants are reported quarterly. Reprogramming beyond the lesser of $5 million or 10 percent needs prior committee approval; a substantial-risk waiver has notice within three days. NRC has separate notice thresholds of $500,000 or 10 percent, monthly balances reporting and its own waiver. No blanket power to shift restricted funds is created.
• Limits SPR sales to Chinese Communist Party-influenced entities and sales destined for China; DOE awards of at least $10 million to defined entities of concern; and covered office equipment/services with any PRC ownership in the specified corporate chain. The procurement text also expressly reaches FY2025 DOE funds. Russia/China visitor access has public-area and advance-notice qualifications. These are different legal tests, not one ban on every foreign transaction.
• Provides power-marketing and regulator spending with offsets: Southeastern $9.285 million gross and estimated $0 net; Southwestern $59.766 million gross and $10.4 million net; Western Area $311.035 million gross and $63.372 million net; Falcon/Amistad $6.51 million gross and $228,000 net. Separate purchased-power collections are not duplicate base appropriations. FERC has $520 million gross and estimated $0 net; NRC salaries $952.7 million gross/$148.190023 million net and Inspector General $18.795 million gross/$3.91 million net. Bonneville cannot make new direct loan obligations during FY2026.
• Provides regional development support: Appalachian $162,535,255; Delta $25,274,232; Denali $13,815,497; Northern Border $33,319,727; Southeast Crescent $16,253,526; Southwest Border and Great Lakes each $4,063,381. Denali sole/primary-funded construction is capped at 80 percent for distressed communities and Tribes or 50 percent for other communities, while eligible nonprimary projects may use the funds for nonfederal match. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board receives $45 million and Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board $4 million.
• Restricts spending for the specified private consolidated interim spent-fuel arrangements until host state/local governments and affected Tribes consent, excluding facilities already storing commercial fuel under an NRC license. Other provisions restrict DEI/CRT functions, specified marriage-belief adverse actions, COVID mandates, nonlisted flags, finalization of rules meeting the $100-million-or-more annual-effect criterion, and the specified government speech-classification/censorship partnerships. Existing criminal-investigation exceptions remain for network pornography filters. The $0 spending-reduction account creates no saving.
• Expands use of collected Corps recreation fees within the same civil-works project rather than only the collection site, a change already enacted in Public Law 119-74. The House adds a funding prohibition on closure of Toto Creek, Bolding Mill, Duckett Mill, Old Federal, Van Pugh South Campground, Sawnee and Bald Ridge Creek at Lake Sidney Lanier; it does not name other lakes or promise a separate appropriation.