For the second consecutive year, the Senate appears ready to block any large reorganization of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB).
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Sept. 12 advanced legislation that would prohibit the proposed changes at the nuclear health-and-safety watchdog unless “specifically authorized by law.” The committee’s fiscal 2020 energy and water bill now waits on a vote by the full Senate, but when that might happen is unclear.
Debate on a budget “minibus” that wraps the nearly $49 billion energy and water bill together with other appropriations legislation passed out of committee has been delayed by partisan disputes over funding the Trump administration’s southern-border wall. Meanwhile, Congress faces a tight deadline to keep the government open when fiscal 2020 begins on Oct. 1.
Under a stopgap spending bill approved Thursday by the House in a 301-123 vote, the government would keep running roughly at fiscal 2019 spending levels through Nov. 21. The continuing resolution, passed with support from 76 Republicans and 225 Democrats, still needs approval by the Senate. A vote in the upper chamber is anticipated next week.
If the Senate Appropriations language on the safety board holds up, it would mark the second time Congress has blocked a plan by DNFSB to cut the board’s workforce by about 20%, from roughly 100 staffers to 80.
The independent federal board that monitors health and safety at current and former Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear-weapon sites unveiled the planned overhaul in August 2018. The shakeup would cut DNFSB staffing in Washington, D.C., by about half and establish new field offices in Albuquerque, N.M., and Las Vegas to provide more comprehensive coverage of the Sandia National Laboratories and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, both in New Mexico; the Nevada National Security Site; the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California; and the Idaho National Laboratory.
The Energy Department has changed its procedures and organization over the years, and the board has been slow to adapt, DNFSB Chairman Bruce Hamilton said last year.
But the reorganization, together with Energy Department Order 140.1, which would restrict DNFSB access at nuclear sites, sparked congressional concern about the board’s ability to carry out its mission.
“The Committee remains concerned with the implementation of Order 140.1, Interface with the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board [DNFSB], and the potential impacts on the ability of the DNFSB to carry out its Congressionally-mandated responsibilities,” the Appropriation Committee said in the report that accompanies the fiscal 2020 bill. As a result, the Energy Department is instructed to “collaborate” with DNFSB to address the board’s concerns.
Among other things, Order 140.1 calls on DOE to speak with “one voice” to DNFSB, including by requiring agency contractors to filter questions from board inspectors through DOE. The DNFSB said the order restricts its independence.
The board this week did not respond to requests for comment on whether the staff reorganization is still being pursued.
The Senate Appropriations Committee’s bill would provide $31 million for the DNFSB, which is flat with the current budget year that ends Sept. 30. The administration proposed slightly more than $29 million for the board in fiscal 2020. The House, in legislation passed in June, also recommended $31 million.
Separately, the Senate Armed Service Committee thinks the DNFSB has some organizational problems and proposed its own changes in fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) language issued in June. In the nuclear policy bill, Armed Services proposed limiting DNFSB board members to one term, along with having the agency hire an executive director. The panel was responding to a November 2018 report on the DNFSB by the National Academy of Public Administration.
House lawmakers on Tuesday officially moved to start final negotiations with the Senate on the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. Senate Armed Services announced talks were to begin Thursday in a closed session, but there has been no work yet of agreement being reached.
Senate Panel Again Rules Out Uranium Barter to Supplement Portsmouth Cleanup
The $7.4 billion in funding for the DOE Office of Environmental Management in the Senate committee’s energy and water appropriations exceeds the roughly $7.2 billion approved by the House of Representatives in a “minibus” spending package in June, along with the $6.5 billion proposed by the White House.
The DOE office, which oversees remediation of 16 Cold War and Manhattan Project nuclear sites, is funded at about $7.2 billion for the fiscal 2019.
Like the House bill, Senate Appropriations proposed $418 million in remediation spending on the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. That’s more than the current $408 million, as well as the $356 million sought by the administration.
Given the congressional spike in funding, both the House and Senate stipulated for fiscal 2020 that the Energy Department not be allowed to resume its past practice of bartering uranium in order to subsidize Portsmouth cleanup. If passed, this would be the second year in a row that Congress has rejected barter and instead beefed up the Portsmouth appropriation.
The Senate panel recommends $240 million for decontamination and decommissioning at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, which is $33 million more than sought in either the administration request or the House-passed appropriation. It is also well above the $206 million appropriation in fiscal 2019.
The Senate appropriations bill seeks $450 million in total environmental spending for the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. That’s more than the $410 million during fiscal 2019; more than the $367 million proposed by the House; and the $293 million administration request. The big difference is the $216 million in D&D spending proposed by the Senate; compared to $189 million in 2019; the $145 million proposed by the House and the $94 million in the administration request.
Like the House, the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended $397 million for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, which is flat with the fiscal 2019 appropriation and $5 million above the White House request.
The Hanford Site in Washington, the Energy Department’s most contaminated location, would be funded at $2.5 billion divided between the Office of River Protection ($1.6 billion), and the Richland Operations Office ($900 million). The combined total would be $470 million more than the White House sought and roughly $50 million more than approved by the House.
The Savannah River Site in South Carolina would get about $1.47 billion for environmental spending in the Senate Appropriations plan, up from the $1.43 billion passed by the House and flat with the amount sought by the Energy Department. The DOE facility is funded at about $1.39 billion in fiscal 2019.
Cleanup at the Idaho National Laboratory would receive $373 million, less than the $433 million in fiscal 2019 and the $424 million in the House bill, but still above the $335 million White House request.
ExchangeMonitor reporter Dan Leone contributed to this article.
