The full House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday voted 32 to 24 in favor of a fiscal year 2023 spending bill with almost $7.9 billion for nuclear weapons cleanup at the Department of Energy.
That’s about even with the 2022 appropriation, and with the Joe Biden administration’s ask, taking into account the roughly $190 million the White House in June added to its spending request for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). Initially, in the budget request rolled out in March, Biden sought $7.64 billion for EM.
The extra spending the White House proposed in June was mostly for liquid-waste cleanup at Hanford, funding for which the administration wanted to increase at the expense of solid-waste cleanup at former plutonium production complex in eastern Washington state. The House Appropriations Committee declined to go along with that request.
Meanwhile, Tuesday’s vote clears the way for the full U.S. House of Representatives to take action on the bill, which would set EM’s budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. House leadership had not scheduled debate as of Tuesday afternoon.
The final committee vote was largely among party lines with GOP “no” votes including Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), whose district includes the Idaho National Laboratory, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), whose district includes much of the Oak Ridge Site, and Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) whose district includes the Hanford Site.
“There are many things in the majority’s mark that if considered individually, House Republicans could support,” Simpson said. But Simpson said the overall bill is based on a funding level passed without GOP support.
Likewise, Newhouse lauded many aspects of the bill that keeps Hanford funding at the same $2.6 billion funding level from fiscal 2022.
