Looking Forward: What to Expect for Energy and Climate Provisions in the 2024 NDAA

Before breaking for August recess, both chambers of Congress passed their respective versions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 (NDAA) (H.R.2670/S.2226). This annual “must-pass” legislation sets defense policy and authorizes spending on national security efforts, largely through the Department of Defense (DOD), as well as the Department of Energy (DOE). With Congress now back in session, the two bills are expected to be taken up to resolve their differences. 

From its inception in 1961, the legislation has covered spending on issues such as strengthening land, air, and naval warfare capabilities; military alliances and partnerships abroad; weapons procurement; defense intelligence; DOD operations; and innovative defense technologies. In recent decades, however, modernization of warfare, the introduction of novel and emerging threats, and an ever-expanding definition of national security has transformed the NDAA into a behemoth legislative package, with more recent versions covering issues like cyber terrorism, reproductive rights, and diversity initiatives. 

“Climate change is a direct threat to the national security of the United States and is impacting stability in areas of the world both where the United States Armed Forces are operating today, and where strategic implications for future conflict exist.”

While energy security has been baked into the defense law since 1993 (the DOD is the single largest energy-consuming entity in the country), climate change did not appear in the text until 2008. That year, a provision required the DOD to begin incorporating climate risk assessments into their defense planning. Since then, the national security community has undertaken an increasingly outsized government role in addressing climate change and energy. In Congress, however, more definitive acknowledgment of climate change as a national security threat has only begun to emerge in recent years: the 2018 NDAA included a formal bipartisan declaration that “climate change is a direct threat to the national security of the United States and is impacting stability in areas of the world both where the United States Armed Forces are operating today, and where strategic implications for future conflict exist.” 

Energy and Climate Provisions in the House NDAA

Following a contentious House Rules Committee hearing, the House reached a bill that would authorize $500 million for energy conservation and resilience efforts. Most prominent among these efforts was nuclear energy—a nod to recent bipartisan efforts to ramp up domestic nuclear energy production. Amendments to the House bill mandate federal agencies to create a strategy for the deployment of emerging nuclear technologies and acknowledge the significance of nuclear energy to military operations, grid resilience, and national security.

Climate conversations in the House focused largely on the risks of extreme weather events to military bases and infrastructure. The chamber’s bill includes a bipartisan amendment from Reps. Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.) and Michael Bost (R-Ill.) requiring additional, regionally-specific studies of the risks of weather hazards at military installations, as well as proposed mitigation strategies. 

Energy and Climate Provisions in the Senate NDAA

In the Senate, an $886 billion NDAA passed with an 86-11 vote. Of the energy provisions within the Senate bill, nuclear energy once again found substantial consensus, with $178 million authorized for nuclear activities under the DOE (an increase of over