House and Senate energy and water appropriations bills for fiscal 2017, released this week, both propose to fund the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Site Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) at $103 million, which is in line with the Obama administration’s request.
The House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee approved the $37.4 billion spending legislation on Wednesday, and the bill is expected before full committee next week. The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved its $37.5 billion version of the bill, which is expected to reach the upper chamber’s floor next week. The next budget year begins Oct. 1.
House appropriators accepted the administration’s proposal despite calls from some House lawmakers to fund FUSRAP at $150 million or more in fiscal 2017. Lawmakers from Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland in a March 15 letter requested that House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) and Ranking Member Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) restore FUSRAP funding to “historical levels.” According to the letter, funding fluctuated between $140 million and $160 million from 1998 to 2008, and was increased to $240 million in 2009. FUSRAP was started in 1974 to identify, investigate, and clean up or control sites contaminated by early U.S. atomic weapons and energy programs during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.
The proposed amount “is an inadequate number, given the enormous increase in remediation and workscope requirements in the face of flat-to-declining annual funding,” the letter states. “Leaving these sites unaddressed not only poses a health risk to communities near these sites, but also ignores the Federal government’s responsibility for addressing the lasting impacts of the Manhattan Engineer District and the Atomic Energy Commission activities.”
The March 15 letter was signed by Reps. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger (D-Md.), and Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio). FUSRAP oversees sites in all their states.
On Wednesday, Higgins expressed disappointment with the funding proposal, saying the Niagara Falls Storage Site, the Tonawanda Landfill property, and the Seaway Site in New York all are in need of funding resources.
“While the 2017 FUSRAP House allocation matches the Administration request it still falls short given the great need,” Higgins said in a statement. “We should be more aggressive in funding the clean-up of radioactive messes that the federal government left in communities throughout America’s industrial heartland as a result of the Manhattan Project and other early atomic weapon development programs.”
