The Joe Biden administration proposed putting the Department of Energy back in charge of Manhattan Project site cleanup efforts as part of its fiscal year 2022 budget request, according to a recent press release.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which currently oversees the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), would continue cleaning up the sites “on a reimbursable basis” with DOE if Congress approves the administration’s budget proposal, according to a May 28 press release from the Corps.
If the White House plan became law, the shift would result in a 10% decrease to the Corps’ non-defense allocation. The administration requested $6.8 billion for the Corps in 2022 — down from $7.8 billion the year before.
This isn’t the first time an administration has eyed the possibility of handing FUSRAP back to DOE. The Trump administration used the same language last February in its budget request for fiscal 2021. Congress blocked another Trump attempt to move the program in fiscal 2020.
The Corps took over FUSRAP from DOE in 1997. The program was established in 1974 to identify and clean up sites that hosted nuclear weapons and nuclear power operations from the 1940s to the 1960s under the Manhattan Engineer District and Atomic Energy Commission. As of April there are 21 active sites across eight states.
