The House of Representatives voted 255-165 yesterday to approve the Fiscal Year 2013 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. The measure would provide a total of approximately $5.53 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, a cut of approximately $100 million from DOE’s request. During floor debate on the bill in the House, Reps. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) were successful in amending the bill to provide an additional $36 million for non-defense environmental cleanup work, with the funds to come from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Departmental Administration and Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Office of the Administrator accounts. While the amendment was defeated earlier this week by a voice vote, it was subsequently approved by a roll call vote of 223-195.
Among the EM sites covered by non-defense cleanup funding is the West Valley Demonstration Project, located in Reed and Higgins’ home state. Notably, West Valley was one of two cleanup sites where DOE had proposed a significant funding cut for FY 2013. “Timely cleaning of the West Valley site is a long-term public safety issue,” Reed said in a press release yesterday. “The remediation work at West Valley and other nuclear sites cannot slow down. Any delay increases the danger and cost. I thank Congressman Higgins for joining us yet again to stand up for the safety of Western New Yorkers.” Higgins said in the release, “This is a common sense, bipartisan amendment that protects our environment and our Great Lakes and prevents the cost of cleanup from multiplying.”
Republicans defeated several amendments aimed at reducing funding for NNSA accounts, including an amendment authored by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) that would’ve cut $298 million in funding for nuclear weapons technology. That amendment was voted down, 281-138. GOP lawmakers also turned back an amendment by Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) to move $16 million from the NNSA’s headquarters account to its nonproliferation account by a 237-182 vote, and defeated an amendment by Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) that would have reduced NNSA nonproliferation construction and expansion funding by $100 million by a 249-168 vote. That amendment passed by a voice vote Tuesday. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) offered amendments that would’ve shifted $10 million and $52 million from the NNSA’s weapons program to the Army Corps of Engineers, but both measures were defeated.
One amendment that did pass was a measure to cut another $17 million from funding for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in the bill, redirecting it to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative. The amendment by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry passed yesterday 328 to 89 would add to the already $153 million cut from the Administration’s budget request in the House bill for the NNSA’s Fissile Materials Disposition program. “The MOX fuel program has cost billions in taxpayer dollars with little practical effect. Instead, this funding would be better used strengthening our nuclear security efforts,” Fortenberry said in a statement.
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