Longtime EM champion set to chair Senate Appropriations Committee

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) - one of the biggest champions of the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) cleanup program - is set to become chair of the Appropriations Committee after Democrats managed to maintain their Senate majority.

Sen. Murray defeated Republican challenger Tiffany Smiley to maintain her seat in the upper chamber during this year’s election.

According to Bloomberg Government, Sen. Murray is set to be joined by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) atop the powerful panel following the retirement of Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). This will be the first time the “four corners” of Congress’ appropriations panels will all be women, with Reps. Kay Granger (R-Texas) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) set to continue leading the House panel.

Sen. Murray has worked to ensure that the federal government meets its moral and legal obligation to clean up Hanford as well as similar nuclear waste sites throughout the country. 

She has led the fight in Congress to secure funding for the cleanup at the Hanford Site, protect workers, and support the Tri-Cities communities for many years.

In the government funding package for 2022, for example, Sen. Murray secured $2.595 billion for the Hanford site cleanup—notably, this was $128 million above the President’s Budget Request.

"[S]ecuring the necessary funding over the next few years in particular will be critical to the overall success of the cleanup," she said on the matter.

If the Democrats win one more seat following the Georgia run-off to take a 51-49 majority, the dynamics of the Senate Appropriations Committee (and others) would change. Democrats would be able to add more of their members to the committees, breaking from the 50-50 power sharing agreement established two years ago that put an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on each committee.

Leahy and Shelby still have one more task before Collins and Murray take over. Lawmakers face a Dec. 16 deadline to fund the government, and the two current leaders said they aim to strike a deal in time to give members of the next Congress a fresh start.