The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed its first fiscal 2020 appropriations bill without any discussion of or changes to its $7.2 billion spending proposal for the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office.
After several days of debate, House members voted 226-203 in favor of a “minibus” appropriations bill that would fund the Energy Department, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Pentagon, and other agencies. All Republicans opposed the roughly $1 trillion measure, as did seven Democrats.
Dozens of amendments to the bill. H.R. 2740, were debated on the House floor starting last week, but none involved the work of DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.
The White House proposed about $6.5 billion in funding in the budget year starting Oct. 1 for the office’s work in managing environmental remediation at 16 retired and active nuclear-weapon sites around the nation. That proved a nonstarter for the House Appropriations Committee, which instead recommended a $700 million increase in an energy and water development bill that was wrapped into the minibus. If enacted, that would be roughly equivalent with the Environmental Management office’s current funding level.
Much of the House’s planned funding boost, about $400 million, would go to the two offices that oversee remediation and radioactive waste management at the Hanford Site in Washington state. That would bring the total appropriation for the Richland Operations Office and Office of River Protection to about $2 billion.
Other funding levels in the House bill: $424 million for cleanup at the Idaho National Laboratory, against a White House request of $335 million; $368 million for EM at the Oak Ridge Site, compared to a $293 million request; $1.43 billion for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, a reduction from the $1.46 billion the Energy Department wanted $297 billion for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico; and close to $61 million for the Nevada National Security Site, about even to current funding.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to release any fiscal 2020 legislation, as leaders in Congress negotiate spending caps for the upcoming budget.
The White House has threatened to veto the House spending bill, partly over its proposed increase for DOE cleanup funding and its $600 million reduction of spending for the department’s nuclear-weapon mission.
