The compromise National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2020 would allow almost $2.1 billion for defense environmental cleanup operations the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state.
Defense environmental cleanup is the largest tranche of funding for Hanford and other properties managed by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. In total, the office would be authorized to receive $5.5 billion from that funding stream in the budget year that began Oct. 1, following the expected congressional passage and presidential signing of the NDAA.
The NDAA authorizes $679 million for DOE’s Richland Operations Office at Hanford and $1.4 billion for the site’s Office of River Protection. The actual funding would come from separate appropriations legislation still being negotiated on Capitol Hill. Spending levels for Hanford and other cleanup sites are not likely to line up directly with the numbers in the NDAA, which does not cover other funding streams.
The NDAA would limit defense environmental spending at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee to about $288 million, down from the $293 million sought by the administration
Defense environmental spending would be authorized at $1.49 billion at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, under the NDAA, up some from the $1.46 billion in the administration request.
The military policy bill authorizes spending of $392 million at the Waste isolation Pilot Plant, the defense-related transuranic waste disposal site in New Mexico. The amount is equal to the administration’s request.
The NDAA would authorize $335 million in defense environmental money for Idaho National Laboratory, which is equal to the administration request.
The compromise legislation also limits the amount provided for decommissioning of excess facilities at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California to $55 million, rather than the $128 million sought by the White House.
The House passed the $738 billion NDAA last week, and the Senate is due to follow suit this week. President Donald Trump has said he will sign the bill.