The two offices at the U.S. Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state would enjoy higher funding in a compromise appropriations bill for fiscal 2020, according to supporting material released Tuesday.
The energy and water development bill agreed to by the House and Senate as part of a larger appropriations package would fund Hanford’s Richland Operations Office at $912 million, up from the $865 million enacted in fiscal 2019, the $846 million approved by the House of Representatives, the $900 million proposed by the Senate Appropriations Committee, and the $629 million requested by the Donald Trump administration.
Meanwhile, Hanford’s Office of River Protection would receive the $1.61 billion proposed by the Senate committee for fiscal 2020, which is more than the $1.57 billion enacted in fiscal 2019, the $1.56 billion passed by the House for 2020, and the $1.39 billion sought by the White House.
The Richland Operations Office oversees work by environmental remediation contractors, as well as site infrastructure needs. The ORP oversees the retrieval, treatment, and disposal of 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste stored in underground tanks at Hanford.
As a result, the two offices that oversee the most complex cleanup among the 16 sites run by the DOE Office of Environmental Management will receive a total of more than $2.5 billion, compared to the roughly $2 billion proposed by the administration for the current fiscal year.
Congress on Monday issued the compromise appropriations bill that funds the DOE nuclear cleanup office at nearly $7.5 billion, higher than the roughly $7.2 billion enacted in fiscal 2019, as well as the $6.5 billion sought by the administration. Fiscal 2020 began Oct. 1 and since then the government has stayed open thanks to continuing resolutions, the latest of which expires Friday.
The House passed the compromise appropriations bill on Tuesday. The Senate is expected to pass the measure in time for Trump’s signature prior to expiration of the current continuing resolution.
