NEW MEXICO LAWMAKERS URGE QUICK ACTION ON DOE REPROGRAMMING

Members of the New Mexico Congressional delegation urged their colleagues yesterday to move quickly approve the Department of Energy’s recently submitted request to shift funds among its cleanup projects. Among the sites targeted by DOE’s reprogramming request is Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the Department is seeking to increase cleanup funds by $19 million and where the National Nuclear Security Administration is expected to submit a similar request to transfer another $21 million to cleanup activities. “Due to the continuing resolution for FY2013 and the negative impacts of sequestration, Environmental Management programs do not have the funding needed for much-needed cleanup efforts,” the New Mexico lawmakers wrote in a letter to the leadership of the House and Senate Appropriations and Armed Services committees. “Without additional funding, environmental management will begin to slow operations and issue furlough notices as soon as this week, with full operations scheduled to shut down next month. This would have serious impacts to the productivity of LANL’s workforce, the surrounding environment, the security of the transuranic waste, and the federal government’s legal obligations to the state of New Mexico.” The letter was signed by Sens. Tom Udall (D) and Martin Heinrich (D) and Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D).