Brian Bradley
WC Monitor
10/9/2015
Officials are seeking a $27 million plus-up over President Barack Obama’s original fiscal 2016 request for nuclear materials funding within the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM), according to an Oct. 5 internal email obtained by WC Monitor that was sent from Savannah River Site (SRS) Office of Integration and Planning Director John Lopez to senior EM and SRS officials. “We should be prepared to talk to Donovan about the program impacts of the FY 2016 President’s request,” Lopez wrote. “He needs to really understand the impacts to the nuclear material program if we don’t get a $27M plus up or reprogramming.”
Another Oct. 5 email obtained by WC Monitor sent by EM Budget Director Connie Flohr includes another apparent reference to Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan, and stresses the fact that he must pass along any budget recommendations to his management by “early next week.” In the email, Flohr appears to push for submission of SRS and EM fiscal 2016 budget recommendations by the end of today. “I want to make sure folks are aware of the urgency of this. … So if we want to influence those recommendations with the information being pulled together, I suggest it get cleared through EM-1 [DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Monica Regalbuto] in the next couple days so it can get to Donovan late this week.”
EM requested a total of $234.7 million for nuclear materials stabilization and disposition at SRS for fiscal 2016, down $12.2 million from fiscal 2015-enacted levels. Funding for this program has steadily declined since fiscal 2014, when congressional appropriators provided $272 million for the program. The apparent scheduled briefing would come after Congress on Oct. 1 passed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government at fiscal 2015 levels through Dec. 11, and as House lawmakers deliberate a final fiscal 2016 spending bill. The Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of the final fiscal 2016 spending bill in July. The materials stabilization and disposition program at SRS falls under the site’s remediation/cleanup mission. Among other things, SRS materials operations include the dissolving, purification, and blending down of surplus highly enriched uranium and foreign and domestic research reactor fuel to produce a low enriched uranium solution suitable for conversion to commercial reactor fuel, according to SRS’ website.
Lopez sent his email to Kenneth Picha, EM deputy assistant secretary for tank waste and nuclear material, and included 13 cc’s to various other EM and SRS officials.
DOE-Savannah River Field Office spokesman Jim Giusti refused to confirm the validity of the emails’ content, only noting that: “The Department is awaiting final action by Congress on appropriations for Fiscal Year 2016.” A DOE official speaking on condition of anonymity also declined to discuss the details of the emails’ content. "EM will limit any discussion of site specific budgets to OMB and congressional appropriators, and we will work with Congress as appropriate to ensure they are aware of any emergent needs,” that official said. OMB did not respond to requests for comment.
