Four Republican lawmakers in the House, echoing remarks Energy Secretary Rick Perry made during his confirmation hearing in January, are wondering whether the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is spending money efficiently.
To that end, the lawmakers have asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate whether active Environmental Management cleanup programs should be put under the same administrative microscope as the office’s big construction projects.
“[W]e seek to understand whether EM [Environmental Management] is adequately assessing the performance of its cleanup projects and managing the majority of its annual budget as effectively and efficiently as possible,” Reps. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas), chairman and vice chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, wrote in a March 31 letter printed on committee stationary.
Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.), respectively the chairmen of the panel’s energy and environment subcommittees, also signed the letter. A copy of the missive was delivered to the ranking Democrats on each panel.
In his confirmation hearing, Perry suggested that budget shortfalls at DOE’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio, might be “an issue of execution, of good management.” At the hearing, the former Texas governor repeatedly touted his administrative credentials and ability to establish crack management teams as a qualification to lead DOE and the roughly $6-billion-a-year Cold War nuclear cleanup operation run by the Environmental Management (EM) office.
Spokespersons for EM and Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, did not immediately reply to requests for comment Wednesday.
Under a 2010 order crafted by the Barack Obama administration, DOE requires major construction projects — such as facilities needed to treat millions of gallons of liquid radioactive waste in South Carolina and Washington state — to pass through a strict regimen of headquarters-led reviews and milestones before, during, and after construction.
In their letter, the GOP lawmakers asked the GAO to assess whether whether day-to-day nuclear cleanup operations could be subject to a similar process, including independent reviews. The congressmen did not set a deadline for GAO to complete its work.
