Critical funding for nation's nuclear legacy - understanding budget issues in environmental cleanup
Right now, the Department of Energy (DOE) is the axis of three federal budget cycles and their critical dollars for cleaning up the nation’s nuclear legacy:
1) FY 2023 appropriations are moving through Congress, where lawmakers aim to strike a deal before federal program funding runs out on December 16;
2) the FY2024 budget sits with the Office of Management and Budget, which will pass back funding levels to the DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) and other offices for updates; and
3) requests are going out to sites for FY2025 DOE budget development – EM will ask for local government and community input.
It is critical for local governments and communities that want to lay out priorities for their sites to understand the budget process and the key players to engage in order to impact funding levels.
Since the end of the Cold War, dollars directed to EM have increased in some years and decreased in others. In the late 1990s, each community around a site, the local government, businesses (primarily by prime contractors and their subcontractors), citizen groups, and states lobbied Congress to support the cleanup program and changes in the cleanup program laws. Similarly, national intergovernmental associations helped to raise awareness of the role of local governments in the cleanup process. Regular meetings with congressional members, by all parties, ensured that the “politics” supported the cleanup program and EM budget.
This annual budget now stands at almost $8 billion dollars, as of FY2022.
In budget and appropriations documents, the portions important to DOE’s cleanup program are labeled “Defense Environmental Cleanup,” “Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund,” and “Non-Defense Environmental Cleanup.” Within those three categories, Congress allocates a certain amount for each cleanup site.
The budgets for each site may be found by visiting the ECA Budget Tracker here. More details about EM’s budget request to Congress may be found here.
What is the process to create the EM budget at a site?
The federal budget process generally follows as such:
1. Guidance is issued to sites to engage the Site Specific Advisory Boards (SSABs), stakeholders, and regulators.
2. EM SSAB, stakeholders, and regulators submit advice to sites.
3. Sites submit a budget request to EM, along with recommendations from the site, stakeholders, and regulators.
4. EM deliberates among the sites.
5. EM submits a budget request to the Office of Management and Budget.
6. The Secretary deliberates within the Departments Program Secretarial Offices and submit a budget request to the Office of Management and Budget.
7. The Office of Management and Budget deliberates with the Administration and provides a “Passback” indicating the Administration’s policies and position for the final budget submission.
As explained in a 2009 DOE memorandum on engaging local stakeholders on budget development:
“Following issuance of the EM Budget Guidance (January/February), begin scheduling briefings for the EM SSAB and other stakeholders regarding planned accomplishments for the work scope, priorities, schedules/milestones, validated baselines and compliance projections for various prioritized activities. Establish an agreed-upon timeframe to allow the EM SSAB and other stakeholders to review and provide input in a timely manner to support the proposed budget submission.”
How can a local community impact the budget?
Prior to engaging with EM, it is critical for local governments to understand the Department’s position on baselines and program priorities and incorporate them into stakeholder discussions.
These include:
Well-defined work scope
Defensible near-term cost and reasonable out-year cost estimate
Scheduled milestones and critical path
Risks identified
Community input can make it easier for EM to justify budget requests to DOE and to congressional appropriators, increasing the likelihood of seeing cleanup activities fully funded.
Visiting and meeting with federal legislators—especially appropriators—is an essential part of gaining support for cleanup activities. In these meetings, communities can demonstrate to Members of Congress that federal support for cleanup activities can have significant impacts on the local economy and safety of their shared constituents.
Contractors, state regulators, federal regulators, local governments, community members and others should regularly brief congressional staff and members. The briefings can occur at all levels of a congressional office and include the staff and members of the congressional committees and subcommittees that impact the budget and policies of cleanup.
What happens if a site does not get the level of funding it requested?
There are many steps in the budget process that may lead to lower-than-expected funding for cleanup. Federal budget caps may affect funding. Administration officials may request lower funding for cleanup in order to increase another portion of the budget. An appropriations committee may cut what they believe to be unjustified spending. In the past when Congress cut DOE’s budget overall, the cleanup funding cuts have occurred. Decreased funding can lead to job loss, missed mission milestones, and less cleanup work being accomplished. Cuts in budgets have also led to closing sites permanently.
Education and outreach to decision-makers is critical to help them understand the key issues impacting a community. DOE will meet with Congressional staff regularly throughout the year to identify the work that is being accomplished at DOE sites. Legislators need to have specific information about cleanup activities that cannot occur without sufficient funding, and, if possible, a specific amount of funding needed. The education of the delegation and their staff is an ongoing task that includes formal meetings in Washington and their home states/districts, and their visits to the site.
Just as DOE is educating Congressional staff, so too must the local governments, state governments, tribal governments and others. It is critical that Congressional members and staff also know the priorities and needs of the various parties impacted by DOE’s cleanup mission.
For more information on the budget and other frequently asked questions, visit the ECA Guide to Successful Environmental Cleanup.