House Appropriators Also Move to Increase Hanford Budget
Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
4/17/2015
As House Appropriators this week moved to boost funds for the Portsmouth site, Department of Energy Portsmouth Paducah Project Office Manager Bill Murphie emphasized the need for a stable funding level at Portsmouth. Cleanup funding at Portsmouth has been impacted by both budget cuts and fluctuations in the price of uranium, as DOE uses uranium barters to partly pay for cleanup at the site. “The fact is that the Portsmouth situation is possibly the most complicated project management situation I’ve had to deal with, with the funding constantly going up and down and never being able to plan what the next year is going to be and having almost total instability with funding,” Murphie said this week at a Congressional Nuclear Cleanup Caucus Briefing. “So whatever Congress can do to help us on that would be very much appreciated.”
The remarks come as House appropriators moved to increase funds for Portsmouth above DOE’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request in a markup of the FY’16 Energy and Water Appropriations bill that cleared the subcommittee this week. Portsmouth’s funding from the uranium enrichment D&D fund was cut by $48.6 million in DOE’s FY’16 request below enacted levels to $165.4 million. But the plus up in the House bill provides additional funding “above the request to sustain ongoing cleanup levels at Portsmouth,” House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said at this week’s markup. The subcommittee did not release site-level funding numbers for this week’s bill.
DOE’s proposed budget for the Portsmouth D&D project next year has been met with criticism from members of Ohio’s Congressional delegation, including Sen. Rob Portman (R) and Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R), as well as union leaders, who fear it could lead to layoffs at the site. Portsmouth D&D workers faced the threat of significant layoffs last year, when site contractor Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, warned that it would have to cut about a third of the site workforce—a total of 675 positions out of the project’s then-workforce of approximately 1,900 employees—heading into FY 2015 because of budgetary concerns. FBP was able to largely avoid such layoffs, though, after lawmakers provided an additional $76.4 million as part of the final FY 2015 appropriations legislation.
House Bill Would Boost Cleanup Funding $100 Million Above Request
The House bill would provide approximately $100 million more than the Department of Energy’s budget request for cleanup work next year and approximately $39 million more than current funding levels. The top line funding level in the House bill for DOE defense environmental cleanup activities, covering most DOE Office of Environmental Management Sites including Hanford, stands at approximately $5.056 billion. That largely matches DOE’s request. Non-defense environmental cleanup would be funded at a total of $229 million, approximately $9 million more than the Department’s request. For uranium enrichment D&D activities, which covers work at the Paducah, Portsmouth and Oak Ridge sites—the House bill would provide a total of approximately $625 million, $83 million more than the Department’s request.
Hanford Could Also See Funding Boost
Simpson told reporters this week that Hanford is among the sites that could see increases. “Some of the plus up I suspect is going to go toward Hanford, the Waste Treatment Plant and the Richland office,” he said. “Members from Washington are very concerned about that, as they should be.” DOE’s FY’16 budget request cut cleanup funds at Richland by $124 million below enacted levels while boosting Hanford’s Office of River Protection by $127 million. The proposed cut at Richland, in particular, has raised concern from Washington lawmakers, including Sens. Patty Murray (D) and Maria Cantwell (D) as well as Reps. Dan Newhouse (R) and Jaime Herrera Beutler (R).
