The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is waiting for more information before it assesses the potential impacts of the White House’s announcement this week that the three-year-old COVID-19 national emergency declaration would end this summer, a spokesperson said this week.
In an Office of Management and Budget policy statement Monday, the Joe Biden administration announced that it would on May 11 terminate the national emergency and public health emergency declarations related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That announcement, an NRC spokesperson told RadWaste Monitor via email Wednesday, was “a general one,” not specific to the operations of the U.S.’s nuclear safety regulator.
“We are awaiting further guidance to better understand potential, if any, impacts,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that the COVID-19 pandemic had “minimal” impact on NRC’s Rockville, Md., headquarters or on operations at its four regional offices. Agency staff have been working in a hybrid capacity for over a year now — NRC in November 2021 allowed its employees to begin coming back into the office.
During a swell in cases caused by the COVID Omicron variant in early 2022, NRC implemented increased telework flexibility, allowing staff to take on “project-based” telework.
The emergency declarations, which were enacted under the Donald Trump administration in 2020 and provided extra funding to healthcare services during the pandemic, were initially set to expire in March and April, respectively.
Meanwhile, some members of Congress are pushing NRC to provide more clarity on its hybrid work environment. Sen. Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.V.) asked the agency in a letter last week to conduct a “thorough examination” of its office needs to prevent taxpayers from footing the bill for unused office space.
