REP. HASTINGS CHIDES DOE FOR LACK OF DETAIL IN BUDGET REQUEST

Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) took the Department of Energy to task yesterday for the relative lack of information contained in its Fiscal Year 2014 budget request. The request, which was officially rolled out yesterday, contained primarily only top-line and site-by-site specific funding amounts for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, with the Department saying that additional information is set to be released in the next few weeks.“The budget request released today for cleanup is unusually short on details. This lack of information coupled with the continued uncertainty surrounding the Department of Energy’s reprogramming package make it impossible to determine the true impacts of the request on the Richland Operations Office or the Office of River Protection,” Hastings said in an April 10 statement. “The Administration has provided no explanation of exactly where or how the requested funding would be spent. Complete information about the proposed spending plan and answers to basic questions about the path forward for WTP and the tanks will be required as Congress works through the appropriations process for Fiscal Year 2014.”