The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday affirmed a plan to keep Energy Department Office of Environmental Management funding at about $7.2 billion for fiscal 2020.
The funding is included in the energy and water development appropriations legislation for the budget year starting Oct. 1, which the committee reported to the full House. The measure keeps funding for the DOE nuclear cleanup office at the fiscal 2019 enacted level, rather than the $6.5 billion requested by the White House in March.
The bill passed 31 to 21, essentially along party lines. Committee Chair Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) has said she expects the full House to vote on the measure in June.
The energy legislation restores about $400 million to the Richland Operations Office and the Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Provided the measure becomes law, the two DOE field offices would together receive about $2.4 billion.
The committee also approved a “manager’s amendment” from Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Chair Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) that made several bipartisan tweaks to the $46.4 billion bill.
The amendment includes reshuffling $10 million from remediation of Hanford’s River Corridor to its Central Plateau.
The measure, supported by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), would increase funding for Central Plateau remediation at Hanford from $578 million to $588 million. Newhouse said it helps pay for moving cesium and strontium capsules to dry cask storage. The capsules are currently held in a storage pool, which could be at risk in an earthquake.
The manager’s amendment also reminds DOE of its authority to transfer “excess personal property and equipment” to community reuse organizations that promote economic development at DOE sites such as Hanford, Paducah in Kentucky, Portsmouth in Ohio, and Savannah River in South Carolina, Newhouse said.
