HENDERSON, Nev. — Department of Energy officials and industry executives expressed hope Wednesday that no last-minute snags hold up passage of a fiscal 2019 budget with healthy funding for the agency’s nuclear weapons and cleanup operations.
“Who wants to do layoffs in an election year?” Eric Knox, vice president of strategic development, nuclear and environment, for the AECOM Management Services Group, said at the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit.
The House and Senate this week were working on a consensus version of H.R. 5859, the 2019 Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act. But the clock is ticking for passage of the “minibus” funding bill ahead of the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30. Absent a full budget, the federal government would face shutdown or another series of short-term spending plans to sustain operations.
A conference report on the energy funding bill had not been published as of Friday, and there was no official schedule for its release. Politico reported Friday that the final document could be prepared this weekend, followed by votes in both chambers of Congress next week.
The current appropriations bills from both chambers would fund DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration at roughly $15 billion and the Office of Environmental Management in the neighborhood of $7 billion. The DOE and its contractors hope to avoid short-term continuing resolutions needed for the past couple years to sustain operations.
Government contractors like stability in government funding and welcome long-term planning, Atkins Senior Vice President Government and Public Affairs Victoria Napier said at the conference. Contractors dislike short-term budget resolutions because multiyear projects involving construction or decommissioning often don’t lend themselves to flat funding, industry officials say.
The bills include spending on infrastructure at these offices, which although not a sexy topic, is important to DOE sites such as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, said Assistant Energy Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs Melissa Burnison.
The Senate and House versions both provide $84 million in fiscal 2019 toward construction of the $288 million ventilation system at WIPP. Likewise, the appropriations measures would continue to fund construction at roughly $663 million for the Uranium Processing Facility being built at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The project is scheduled to be finished by 2025 at a cost of no more than $6.5 billion.
The looming November elections could spur Congress to clear this appropriations bill off its plate and allow members to get back home for campaigning, Knox said.
