The House Armed Services Committee has signed off on the Department of Energy’s recently submitted reprogramming request to shift funds among cleanup projects and sites. The news was announced yesterday by Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) during a House Cleanup Caucus briefing on DOE’s Office of River Protection. The House panel is one of four Congressional committees that must approve the request before it can go into effect, along with the Senate Armed Services Committee and House and Senate Appropriations committees. It remains to be seen when the other committees will approve the request, though they are expected to move quickly given the potential workforce impacts at several DOE cleanup sites.
The reprogramming request is necessary to address budgetary issues at a number of cleanup sites resulting from the Continuing Resolution and sequestration and to help prevent further layoffs and other workforce impacts. Overall, the requests seeks to move a total of $273.5 million in defense environmental cleanup funds and $23 million in uranium enrichment D&D funding, according to a copy obtained by WC Monitor. “Without timely approval of this reprogramming, the continuation of misaligned funds, in addition to a nearly $394 million reduction from the FY 2012 enacted level, will result in major programmatic impacts across the complex,” DOE Deputy Chief Financial Officer Alison Doone wrote in a May 3 letter to House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rodgers (R-Ky.)
