While the Joe Biden administration in its appropriations request floated the idea of moving a military cleanup program to the Department of Energy from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, lawmakers seem inclined to keep things as they are, according to a recent analysis from the Congressional Research Service.
The White House budget request in May included a proposal to transfer oversight of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) from the Army Corps to DOE’s Office of Legacy Management, which manages long-term stewardship of remediated sites, the Congressional Research Service said in a report dated Sept. 1. The Army Corps would still do the actual cleanup.
But neither the spending package passed by the full House of Representatives in July nor the Senate Appropriations Committee bill, endorsed by the panel in August, includes the proposed FUSRAP transfer. The 2021 fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
Multiple administrations have proposed nesting FUSRAP in DOE, as it used to be. The DOE budget request includes $250 million for FUSRAP, the same as appropriated to Army Corps for the program in fiscal 2020.
