The Donald Trump administration has proposed a $6.5 billion budget for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management in fiscal 2020, slightly less than the $6.6 billion requested last year but 11 percent below the $7.2 billion eventually enacted by Congress.
The office’s funding for the budget year that began Oct. 1 is its largest nuclear cleanup appropriation since it received $7.3 billion in fiscal 2005.
In a top-line budget plan issued Monday, senior DOE officials said the request fulfills the government’s continuing obligation to clean up the environmental legacy of Cold War nuclear weapons development.
The $6.5 billion would fund remediation of 16 sites in 11 states. The figure encompasses line items for Defense Environmental Cleanup, Non-Defense Environmental Cleanup, and the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund.
The Trump administration did not release any site-by-site funding breakdown as of Friday morning. More details on the budget are expected Monday.
The Energy Department would also provide $300 million for its Office of Legacy Management, which is tasked with monitoring Energy Department properties where cleanup has been completed.
The overall DOE budget ask is $31.7 billion, down by 11 percent from the current enacted amount.
Two industry sources said Thursday they expect Congress will add more money to the administration proposal for Environmental Management, although whether it matches the current $7.2 billion remains to be seen.
Budget bills start out in the House of Representatives, which is now controlled by Democrats after the November midterms. As a result, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) chairs the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee, which proposes funding plans for the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Kaptur is traditionally a supporter of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and does not have a DOE cleanup site in her district, noted one of the sources. However, her state is home to the department’s Portsmouth Site, once a uranium enrichment complex. Before Republicans lost control as a result of the November elections, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) chaired the panel; the Idaho National Laboratory is in his district.
The corresponding energy and water subcommittee within the Senate Appropriations Committee continues to be chaired by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), a supporter of DOE and his local installations, the Oak Ridge Site and the Y-12 National Security Complex.
Even if the Congress does not add an extra $500 million to $600 million, it is possible the Office of Environmental Management could accommodate the cut proposed by the White House, one source added.
In the final enacted fiscal 2019 budget, the Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site in Washington state received roughly $1.57 billion, more than the $1.44 billion sought by the administration in its request. The ORP counterpart Richland Operations Office received $865 million well above the requested $658 million. The Savannah River Site in South Carolina was budgeted at about $1.39 billion, less than the $1.47 billion in the request. The Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee received $410 million, compared to the $226 million sought; and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico received $397 million, which is what the administration sought.
