The House of Representatives Appropriations Committee on Tuesday passed federal funding legislation that would prohibit the Trump administration from transferring the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to the Department of Energy.
Appropriators did not discuss the White House proposal before voting 31-21 to send the fiscal 2020 energy and water development legislation to the House floor.
But in the committee report for the bill, issued Monday, the panel indicated it sees no reason to relocate the nuclear cleanup program.
“The Committee is pleased with the current cooperation between the Corps and the Department in carrying out the program and expects the Department to continue to provide its institutional knowledge and expertise to ensure the success of this program and to serve the nation and the affected communities,” the report says.
The $46.6 billion bill would specifically provide the Army Corps with $155 million for FUSRAP in the budget year beginning Oct. 1, $5 million above the current funding level and $14 million more than the White House requested. The Army Corps in total would receive nearly $7.4 billion, $2.5 billion above the administration’s plan.
In its latest spending plan, issued in March, the Trump administration said it would transfer management of FUSRAP from the Army Corps to the Energy Department’s Office of Legacy Management. However, the Army Corps would continue to handle the on-site remediation operations, with reimbursement from DOE.
If the White House plan goes through, it would reverse Congress’ shift of FUSRAP 21 years ago from the Energy Department to the Army Corps. In its latest budget proposal, the Energy Department touted the benefits of consolidating nuclear remediation operations under one agency for prioritizing the work on an annual basis.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management conducts cleanup at 16 active and retired nuclear-weapon sites. Legacy Management then takes ownership of properties where work is complete.
Senate appropriators have not yet issued their version of the energy and water bill, leaving their position on the FUSRAP transfer unknown.
The program manages environmental remediation of properties that were radioactively contaminated from the 1940s to 1960s by nuclear-weapon and energy operations of the Manhattan Engineer District and Atomic Energy Commission.
Today, DOE Legacy Management still determines which properties are eligible for inclusion in FUSRAP and conducts long-term surveillance and maintenance once remediation is complete. But the Army Corps oversees the actual cleanup.
“The Congress intentionally transferred FUSRAP from the Department to the Corps in fiscal year 1998,” the energy and water bill report says. “In appropriating FUSRAP funds to the Corps, the Committee intended to transfer only the responsibility for administration and execution of cleanup activities at FUSRAP sites where the Department had not completed cleanup. The Committee did not transfer to the Corps ownership of and accountability.”
As of 2018, there were 23 active FUSRAP sites in 10 states. The Office of Legacy Management office oversees 34 sites: 33 where work is completed, plus one other in Burris Park, Calif.
In the bill report, the committee said the program should continue to prioritize locations for funding, with an emphasis on those where cleanup is nearly finished. It specifically mandated that the Army Corps finish a remedial investigation and feasibility study for the retired Sylvania nuclear fuel operation in Hicksville, N.Y., “and, as appropriate, to proceed expeditiously to a Record of Decision and initiation of any necessary remediation.”
