The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled Tuesday to review an energy and water bill that would reverse the Trump administration’s plan to cut $700 million in funding for the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office.
The White House in March asked for just under $6.5 billion for the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) for fiscal 2020, down from the current $7.2 billion. But the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee this week rolled out and then approved legislation that would keep EM funding levels steady.
The next step is the full committee markup, which is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET at the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2359, in Washington, D.C.
The Trump administration budget plan for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 features significant funding reductions at properties across the nuclear cleanup complex. For example, the White House proposed just under $1.4 billion for the Office of River Protection, which manages 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state, an 11% cut from its 2019 funding of $1.57 billion. Spending levels at Hanford’s Richland Operations Office, which oversees most other remediation operations at the site, would drop by about 25% from $954 million to $718 million.
House appropriators have so far only released the top-line numbers at Environmental Management, but the major funding increase in the bill suggests they already plan to funnel money back to Hanford and other DOE locations.
Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash), a subcommittee member whose district includes the Hanford Site, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Newhouse and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) have both publicly suggested they will seek to increase Hanford funding. Cantwell’s office also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Congress did increase the Hanford spending last year after the administration proposed $1.44 billion for the Office of River Protection and $658 million for the Richland Office. The final numbers were upped to $1.57 billion and $954 million, respectively.
The subcommittee will reveal its preferred spending levels for key programs in a detailed bill report to be published Monday, an Appropriations Committee aide said this week. Appropriations Committee Chair Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) said the $46.4 billion energy and water bill could reach the House floor next month.
Last year, the administration sought about $6.6 billion for Environmental Management in fiscal 2019. After the House raised the figure to $6.9 billion, the Senate proposed almost $7.2 billion, the amount ultimately agreed on by House-Senate conferees.
President Trump signed the energy and water development bill in September 2018, funding DOE, NRC, and other programs through Sept. 30, 2019.
In an announcement Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee said the bill has almost $6 billion for defense environmental cleanup, which is essentially flat with the 2019 enacted level but $487 million above the DOE request. Nondefense environmental cleanup would get $308 million, again roughly equal to 2019 but $61 million more than the administration wanted.
Under the appropriations bill, the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund would receive $873 million. That would be $32 million above the fiscal 2019 level and $158 million more than the administration’s $715 million request.
Altogether, DOE would receive $37.1 billion under the House Appropriations subcommittee proposal, up $1.4 billion from fiscal 2019 and $5.6 billion above the administration request.
“This bill rejects the President’s drastic, short-sighted cuts across the Department of Energy” and other key agencies, said energy and water development subcommittee Chair Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) in the press release.
The administration requested $29 million for the Energy Department in fiscal 2019. Congress ultimately appropriated almost $36 billion in passing the full energy and water bill, with Republicans controlling both the House and Senate. For fiscal 2020, the administration wants $31.7 billion.
This year, however, with Democrats controlling the House and Republicans controlling the Senate, one industry source expressed doubt on the likelihood of a budget deal. The source predicted a short-term continuing funding resolution will be needed to keep the federal government running past Sept. 30.
While DOE and a number of other agencies received full-year funding for 2019 as part of the normal appropriations process, others then also needed continuing resolutions to keep the lights on. That eventually led to a government shutdown for those departments from Dec. 22 to Jan. 25.
