Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright disagreed Tuesday over the severity of reduced funding for the Hanford Site in the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2027 budget request.
The following day, Cantwell’s Democratic colleague Patty Murray (D-Wash.) would also challenge the adequacy of the DOE request for Hanford.
Wright told Cantwell during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing that he considers the proposed Hanford cuts “modest.” Further, Wright said the cuts don’t diminish the “scope” or the “urgency” of the ongoing nuclear cleanup at the former plutonium production site.
In response to a question from Cantwell, Wright said DOE does not expect to seek revisions in the Tri-Party Agreement, between DOE, the state and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or a federal court consent decree on Hanford cleanup. That is because DOE expects it will be able to meet or beat the milestones laid out in those legal documents.
Cantwell was unpersuaded by Wright’s assurance. Cantwell said she expects to add Wright to a long line of secretaries of energy who mistakenly think “’I can do cleanup on the cheap,’” at Hanford. Cantwell said she was disappointed and the “workforce was disappointed,” at the budget request.
On Wednesday, Wright testified before the Senate Committee on Appropriations and faced criticism from Murray.
“This budget would slash the Hanford cleanup by $400 million,” Murray said in her opening statement. “We are at a very crucial moment, when we are preparing to build the High Level Waste Facility, and Trump wants to cut [our] legs out from under us by ripping away hundreds of millions of dollars. And it will not save money! If we skimp on that clean up right now, it will take longer and it will cost more.”
Murray also expressed dissatisfaction over DOE’s funding request for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The Office of Science would be cut by 15%, Murray said. This would hrt the Pacific Northwest lab, where “they are on the leading edge on everything from AI, battery technologies, material science, not to mention nuclear nonproliferation—something else this budget actually takes a hatchet to.”
Hanford Field Office operations would be cut by a total of $393 million, but still have a total budget of $2.95 billion, according to a White House budget justification document. Hanford would still account for about 40% of the $8.2 billion budget for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, the head of that office told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee Monday.