WASHINGTON – Congressman Byron Donalds (R-FL) has introduced legislation to codify President Trump's four, May 23, 2025, executive orders regarding the production and national security implications of domestic nuclear energy.

H.R. 3667 - "The Strengthening American Nuclear Energy (SANE) Act" is the 15^th piece of legislation introduced by Congressman Donalds during the 119^th Congress and specifically codifies following executive orders: (1) Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security; (2) Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; (3) Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy; and (4) Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base.

"In November, the American people granted us an unprecedented mandate to implement President Trump’s America First Agenda," said Congressman Donalds (R-FL). "Now more than ever, it’s up to Congress to hold up our end of the bargain. Energy security is national security and it’s imperative that our nation re-asserts our dominance in the nuclear space."

Background:

• Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security

  • "What this executive order will do is speed-up the approval and adoption process for specialized nuclear reactors at [defense and AI installations]," said White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf at the signing of the executive order. "It also involves the Department of Energy making available the necessary fuel stock. It also creates a special envoy position and a strategy around nuclear technology export–the idea being that we can grow American industry on the back of foreign purchasers who are interested in this sort of technology as well."

• Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

  • "This next executive order is intended to reform the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," said White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf at the signing of the executive order. "You heard a few of the people here speak about the complex regulatory processes that have really held the nuclear industry back. Before 1978, there were 133 reactors built in the United States. Since 1978, only two new commercial reactors have come online. That's because of overregulation and the goal of this executive order is bringing that regulatory process into line with the actual needs of the industry and public safety, with an end goal of quadrupling the amount of nuclear power production in the next two and a half decades."

• Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy

  • "This next executive order relates to nuclear reactor testing..." said White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf at the signing of the executive order. "The degree of overregulation and governmental inaction in this space in particular has had the effect of throttling development of new highly-modernized nuclear reactors that could really revolutionize the field of nuclear power  generation. So this executive order orders a revised regulatory process to speed this whole process while preserving obviously core safety concerns. It also creates a new pilot program with an expectation that we will have three new experimental reactors by July fourth next year."

• Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base

  • "Lastly...we have an executive order on reinvigorating the nuclear industrial base," said White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf at the signing of the executive order. "There are a number of core issues here including the issue with fuel feedstock that one of the speakers mentioned before. This executive order among other actions includes an invocation of the defense production act in order to spur closer collaboration with private industry to ensure that we have the fuel supplies we need for a modernized nuclear energy sector. In addition to that, it includes crucial provisions relating to the development of the nuclear energy sector workforce and a number of other key building blocks to the overall nuclear industry that we are trying to spur here."

Statements in Support of the Executive Orders:

• "This is a huge day for the nuclear industry. Mark this day on your calendar," said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum at the signing of the executive orders. "This is going to turn the clock back on over 50 years of overregulation of an industry. American greatness has always come from innovation and we were very innovative. We led post-WWII in all things nuclear, but then, we've been stagnated. We choked it with overregulation. Today, Will is going to walk us through a series of four executive orders, each of these help attack separate issues that have held back this industry...but also a big change."

• "Energy security is national security. If we don't have reliable energy for our basing, for our troops, whether forward-deployed or domestically, we're vulnerable," said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the signing of the executive orders. "So by having small modular nuclear capabilities, which are rapidly being fielded, that we can use on our bases here and around the world, we're creating an environment where if things happen elsewhere, the military can be relied-upon...Also, we're including artificial intelligence in everything we do. If we don't, we're not fast enough, we're not keeping up with adversaries. You need the energy to fuel it, nuclear is a huge part of that, modular or otherwise. So, we're going to have the lights-on, and AI operating when others do not, faster than everybody else because of nuclear capabilities, so this is a big game change for us as well."

More:

• Read legislative text of H.R. 3667 HERE.
• See Congress.gov bill profile of H.R. 3667 HERE.
• Watch explanation of first executive order HERE.
• Watch explanation of second executive order HERE.
• Watch explanation of third executive order HERE.
• Watch explanation of fourth executive order HERE.
• Watch Sec. Burgum's remarks at signing ceremony HERE.
• Watch Sec. Hegseth's remarks at signing ceremony HERE.
• See of H.R. 3667 social media summary graphics BELOW:

###