Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
7/25/2014
Senate appropriators want to reverse the Obama Administration’s proposed funding cut for Hanford in Fiscal Year 2015, according to additional details released this week of the Senate version of the FY 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. Work managed by the DOE Richland Operations Office at Hanford came in for the biggest proposed funding cut in DOE’s FY 2015 cleanup budget request; the Administration called for $848 million compared to RL’s current funding level of $941 million. Senate appropriators, however, are calling for funding for the Richland Operations Office to be kept at $941 million next year, according to the report accompanying the Senate version of the energy spending bill.
In their report, lawmakers said they are looking to provide the additional funding for Hanford to help ensure DOE does not miss regulatory commitments. “Unfortunately, if the Department’s fiscal year 2015 budget request were enacted, several Tri-Party Agreement milestones would be delayed in fiscal year 2015 and additional milestones in future fiscal years could be at risk. This could threaten high risk cleanup projects near the city of Richland, Washington and the economically and environmentally important Columbia River,” the report says. In contrast, the House-approved version of the FY 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bill would provide just $25 million more than what DOE had requested for the Richland Operations Office.
Fate of Final Spending Bill Unclear
The fate of a final FY 2015 energy spending bill remains unclear. While the House has approved its version, the Senate version has so far only made it out of subcommittee and it looks unlikely that it will proceed forward as a stand-alone measure. The full Senate Appropriations Committee had planned to mark up the bill in June, but cancelled the markup due to a disagreement between Democrats and Republicans over a controversial amendment that would scuttle new carbon emissions regulations on power plants. The release of the bill and accompanying report this week signals that Senate leaders have given up hope of marking up the bill, and will use the proposed markup during conference negotiations with the House in several months.
Bill Would Boost Funds for Oak Ridge, ‘Small Sites’
The Senate bill would largely match DOE’s budget request for most other major cleanup sites. One notable exception, though, is Oak Ridge. The Senate bill would provide the site a total of approximately $432 million in defense environmental cleanup funding and uranium enrichment D&D funding, an increase of approximately $75 million from DOE’s request. Senate appropriators also want to provide a significant boost in funds to address the Department’s “small sites”—the bill would provide approximately $80 million, an increase of $20 million from the Department’s request.
Explaining the proposed funding boost for small sites, the committee report states, “In response to a lack of progress on addressing existing contamination and seismic deficiencies within buildings that are located in heavily used areas at some Department national laboratories, the Department is directed to use additional funding to improve health and safety by cleaning up existing contamination and improving seismic standards of buildings within Department laboratory grounds and for remediation efforts at small sites which can demonstrate new models for cleanup performed by private sector and third party organizations, such as laboratories and universities, which could save substantial resources compared to the traditional agency-led cleanup model and result in faster cleanup without compromising public safety.”
Lawmakers Want DOE to Look at Waste Consolidation to Reduce Security Costs
The Senate bill would also direct DOE to look at potential consolidation of waste and materials to help reduce security costs. The measure would provide a total of $254 million for safeguards and security activities at DOE cleanup sites, an increase of $20 million from the Department’s request. “The Committee remains concerned with the Department’s consistently inadequate budget requests in the area of safeguards and security of nuclear facilities and materials rather than undertaking efforts to reduce these costs over time. Therefore, the Committee directs the completion of a report under Departmental Administration regarding the potential consolidation of nuclear materials and wastes as one way to address this issue,” the report says.
