March 17, 2014

SENATOR: DOE SEEKING TO BOOST EM FUNDING AT THE EXPENSE OF WEAPONS WORK?

By ExchangeMonitor

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) questioned the Department of Energy’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget request for its cleanup efforts yesterday, suggesting that DOE sought to boost funding for its Office of Environmental Management at the expense of nuclear weapons modernization efforts. During a Senate Armed Forces Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing on DOE’s request, Sessions questioned the Department’s overall request of approximately $6.135 billion for EM, an increase of approximately $400 million from current funding levels. “How do you justify that large of an increase for Environmental Management while we’re getting a $371 million reduction … from the funding level that was planned in FY13 for the weapons program?” Sessions asked a panel of DOE cleanup chief David Huizenga and several senior National Nuclear Security Administration officials. “It seems to me that the national security requirements of weapons modernization has been reduced in favor of [providing] additional money to environmental cleanup. Is that correct?” Sessions asked.

What apparently drew Sessions’ ire is a proposal contained in EM’s request to reauthorize federal and industry contributions to the federal uranium enrichment D&D fund, which is used to pay for some cleanup costs at the Oak Ridge, Paducah and Portsmouth sites. Of the $6.135 billion EM is seeking in total next year, $442 million would be used to contribute to the fund, leaving approximately $5.65 billion available for actual cleanup work across the DOE complex. DOE has sought for years with little success to reauthorize contributions into the fund, which saw its initial authorization expire in 2007. In late 2010, DOE submitted a report to Congress warning that the fund could run out of money sooner than expected, with the fund facing a shortfall of almost $12 billion to and set to be exhausted by 2020. Efforts to reauthorize the fund have been met, though, with strong opposition from the U.S. nuclear industry and have thus far been unsuccessful.

In response to Sessions’ question, Huizenga (or “Dr. H” as he was dubbed by Subcommittee Chairman Ben Nelson) did not directly mention the uranium D&D fund reauthorization proposal. He did note, however, that the amount of funding EM is seeking for actual cleanup work next year is a slight reduction from current funding levels. “I think that with the overall constraints we do find ourselves in this year, we believe that our request will allow us to meet our compliance agreements and commitments to the citizens around these facilities that supported us in our Cold War efforts and we think it’s a responsible request,” Huizenga said.

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