Senate appropriators on Thursday joined their House counterparts in nixing a request from the Trump administration to transfer the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back to its former home at the Department of Energy.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 31-0 in favor of the $48.9 billion fiscal 2020 energy and water legislation that would keep the nuclear cleanup program at the Army Corps. It would provide $200 million for FUSRAP in the federal budget year that begins Oct. 1.
“The Committee does not support the administration’s request to move funding for formerly Utilized
Sites Remedial Action Program … to the [Energy Department’s] Office of Legacy Management,” the panel said in the report for the 2020 bill, without explaining its thinking.
The corresponding measure that passed out of the House in June also denied the administration plan to relocate FUSRAP, providing $155 million for its work.
The Army branch received $150 million for the program in the current budget.
In the spending plan issued in March, the White House asked for $141 million for FUSRAP in the upcoming fiscal year, operating under DOE’s Office of Legacy Management. The agency’s Office of Environmental Management oversees remediation of other defense nuclear sites, and the department touted the value of consolidating this work in evaluating “cleanup responsibilities in prioritizing work each fiscal year.” In this scenario, the Army Corps would still handle on-site operations.
FUSRAP 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. As of last year, there were 23 active sites in 10 states.
Congress in fiscal 1998 transferred the program from DOE to the Army Corps. The Office of Legacy Management retains responsibility for determining which properties are eligible to he included in FUSRAP and monitors locations after remediation is complete.
During a March hearing of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, Assistant Army Secretary for Civil Works R.D. James said he believed the Energy Department wanted to reclaim the program, though he was unclear on the reasoning. At the time, subcommittee Ranking Member Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) expressed his skepticism of the proposal: “My Dad said when something isn’t broken don’t try to fix it.”
The White House, Energy Department, and Army Corps did not respond to queries Thursday regarding Congress’ opposition to relocating FUSRAP to the Energy Department.
If passed into law, the Senate measure would appropriate nearly $7.8 billion for the Army Corps, a $2.8 billion spike from the administration request. The House bill passed in June would provide close to $7.4 billion.
There was no immediate schedule for full Senate consideration of the energy and water bill, along with the defense funding measure that also advanced from the committee on Thursday. Congress is expected to approve a continuing budget resolution into November to keep the federal government open while it finalizes its fiscal 2020 spending bills, according to reporting this week.
