The nearly $7.6-billion fiscal 2022 budget request the Joe Biden administration made Friday for the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management is larger than White House requests for nuclear cleanup made during the Donald Trump administration and, if enacted by Congress, would continue a run of beefy appropriations.
In February 2020, the Trump White House requested $6.1-billion for the Office of Environmental Management (EM) for fiscal year 2021, which runs through Sept. 30, and by the time the president signed the final appropriations bill, Congress had increased the figure to more than $7.5-billion.
The year before, for fiscal year 2020, DOE requested $6.5 billion for EM, which ultimately was increased by Congress to nearly $7.5-billion.
Likewise in March 2019, the agency requested $6.6-billion for EM, and Congress eventually increased that to $7.2-billion for fiscal 2019.
In May 2017 the DOE requested $6.5-billion for EM, which eventually grew to $7.1-billion. That appropriation became law in March 2018 as part of an omnibus bill.
For fiscal 2017 President Barack Obama requested a $6.1-billion budget for the DOE cleanup office, which Congress subsequently increased to $6.4-billion.
