A trio of major Energy Department nuclear cleanup sites targeted for fiscal 2021 funding cuts by the White House would be restored at least to current levels in the House of Representatives, according to newly released details of a committee spending package.
The House Appropriations Committee on Sunday released the detailed legislative report for its energy and water development bill, which includes $7.45 billion for the DOE Office of Environmental Management.
The figure is roughly equal to the amount enacted for fiscal 2020, but far above the $6.1 billion proposed in February by the Donald Trump administration. The biggest upside would be at the Hanford Site in Washington state, although the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Idaho National Laboratory would also benefit in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.
The Richland Operations Office, which oversees contractors and site infrastructure needs at Hanford, and the Office of River Protection, which oversees the site’s 56 million gallons of radioactive tank waste, would together be funded at over $2.5 billion. That is $752 million than the total Hanford spending sought by the administration, and $38 million above the amount enacted by Congress for fiscal 2020.
The Richland Office is funded at $912 million for the current year. The Trump administration requested less than $556 million for 2032, but the committee’s bill provides $921 million. The Office of River Protection is funded at almost $1.62 billion for the current year; DOE requested $1.26 billion for next year, but the committee would raise that to more than $1.64 billion.
Environmental Management funding for the Idaho National Laboratory under the House measure would be level with fiscal 2020 at about $434 million, compared to $260 million sought by the administration. At Los Alamos, the committee would restore the $100 million the White House proposed cutting from the fiscal 2020 level of $220 million.
The House bill would provide nearly $407 million for remediation at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, less than the $450 million in the current budget year, but still far above the $263 million sought in the DOE request.
In addition to the primary spending plan, the House Appropriations Committee report also alludes to more than $2.68 billion in additional infrastructure spending that the Office of Environmental Management would share in, which might be intended as some type of stimulus for local economies suffering a downturn linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up its bill at 1 p.m. Eastern time today.
