The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management would receive $8.4 billion in fiscal 2025, under the Energy and Water appropriations bill rolled out Thursday by the Senate Appropriations Committee, more than House appropriators sought.
The figure is less than the nearly $8.5-billion appropriated by Congress for fiscal 2024, which ends Sept. 30, but more than the $8.3 billion the House Appropriations Committee backed in its own fiscal 2025 bill and also more than the $8.2 billion sought by the administration of President Joe Biden (D).
The Senate bill calls for $7.5 billion for Defense Environmental Cleanup, $342 million for Non-Defense Cleanup and $577 million for the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning fund.
House appropriators’ version of the bill seeks less than $7.1 billion for Defense Environmental, which was roughly what the Biden administration requested but less than the $7.3 billion appropriated by Congress last year. The $342 million for Non-Defense Cleanup is roughly equal to both fiscal 2024 appropriation and the House Appropriations bill, and much more than the $314-million White House request.
The $577-million Uranium Enrichment cleanup fund figure is far below the $855-million fiscal 2024 appropriation, the $854-million request and the House committee’s $865-million level in its bill.
The Senate legislation would spend $3.2 billion between the two operations offices at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The House Appropriations legislation called for $3.1 billion.
In a report accompanying the Senate’s bill, appropriators said carrying out terms of the so-called holistic agreement between DOE, Washington state and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will call for increased funding in future years. Most of the increase in the Senate bill is aimed at Hanford’s Office of River Protection, which is in charge of addressing 56 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous liquid waste left over from decades of plutonium production.