The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday rejected an amendment to its fiscal 2019 energy and water bill that would have siphoned away certain increased funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and Energy Department environmental cleanup programs.
During the committee markup of the bill, Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) proposed the amendment to help restore $271 million lost between the current enacted budget and the bill’s fiscal 2019 proposal for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).
To do so, Cartwright’s amendment would have reduced funding in the 2019 energy appropriations bill for a half-dozen line items, in amounts ranging from $3 million to $100 million
For example, the lawmaker proposed to eliminate the $30 million boost that would have raised the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund up to $870 million for the budget year beginning Oct. 1. The fund finances cleanup of gaseous diffusion plants at Portsmouth, Ohio; Paducah, Ky.; and Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Likewise, the Cartwright amendment would have eliminated a $100 million increase, above the Trump administration’s $90 million proposed fiscal 2019 level, for the Nuclear Waste Disposal line item for Yucca Mountain licensing.
The committee voted 28-21 against the amendment. It then voted 29-20 to send the bill for a vote by the full House, which had not been scheduled as of deadline.
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who chairs the Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee, said the amendment would have undermined the Energy Department’s plan to end the bartering of surplus uranium to supplement cleanup funding of the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. In the past DOE has used bartering to make up for funding gaps at Portsmouth.
Likewise, the current bill would provide nearly $270 million for DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain spent fuel repository in Nevada, Simpson said.
The overall bill provides $36 billion for DOE, including $6.9 billion for its Office of Environmental Management (EM). The bill also provide roughly $965 million for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
