Department of Energy officials and industry executives expressed hope Wednesday that no last-minute snags hold up passage of a fiscal 2019 Energy Department budget with healthy funding for its nuclear weapons and cleanup operations.
“Who wants to do layoffs in an election year?” Eric Knox, vice president of strategic development, nuclear and environment, for the AECOM Management Services Group, said at the ExchangeMonitor’s RadWaste Summit in Henderson, Nev.
The House and Senate this week were working on a consensus version of H.R. 5859, the 2019 Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act. But the clock is ticking for passage of the “minibus” funding bill ahead of the end of the 2018 fiscal year on Sept. 30.
A conference report had not been published as of Wednesday, and there was no official schedule for its release.
Appropriations bills from both chambers would fund DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration at roughly $15 billion and the Office of Environmental Management in the neighborhood of $7 billion. The DOE and its contractors hope to avoid short-term continuing resolutions needed for the past couple of years to sustain operations.
The bills include spending on infrastructure at these offices, which although not a sexy topic, is important to DOE sites like the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, said Assistant Energy Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs Melissa Burnison. The upcoming appropriations will help fund a new permanent underground ventilation system for WIPP.
“Over the last few years we put waste back in WIPP,” and made major strides at projects such as the Idaho National Laboratory and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, Burnison said. The DOE is showing the money is being used to address the Cold War environmental legacy, she added.
The looming November elections could spur Congress to clear this appropriation bill off its plate and allow members to get back home for campaigning, Knox said.