The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management would receive almost $7.5 billion under a compromise fiscal 2020 appropriations bill released by House and Senate lawmakers on Monday.
That’s equal with the Senate Appropriation Committee’s energy and water development bill, approved in September, and well above the $7.2 billion in last year’s appropriation: an amount roughly level with what the full House of Representatives passed in its appropriation earlier this year.
The top line is also well above the $6.5 billion the Donald Trump administration proposed for nuclear cleanup during the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The Energy Department, like other agencies, has kept its doors open under a series of continuing resolutions that maintain spending largely within 2019 levels. The latest stopgap bill is set to expire Friday.
The compromise bill would appropriate almost $6.3 billion for defense environmental cleanup, which comprises the largest chunk of funding for the Environmental Management office. The deal exceeds both the $6 billion endorsed by the House, the $6.2 billion in the Senate bill and the $5.5 billion sought by the White House.
Non-defense environmental cleanup spending in the appropriations bills is $319 million, up from the $318 million in the Senate panel’s bill, $310 million enacted in fiscal 2019, the $308 million passed by the House, and the $248 million in the administration request.
The bill would appropriate $881 million for the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning (UED&D) Fund. That is down from the $907 million sought by the Senate Appropriations Committee, but exceeds the almost $874 million in the House bill, the $841 million enacted in fiscal 2019, and the $715 million in the White House request.
