More Details about the Biden Budget Request Released

Today the White House released additional details about the Fiscal Year 2024 budget request for the Department of Energy (DOE).

According to new documents, the Administration is requesting increases in cleanup funding for Hanford and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

However, there are proposed cuts in cleanup funding for Idaho, Savannah River, and NNSA sites.

In December last year, ECA sent a letter to the White House urging adequate funding for Environmental Management (EM) sites in FY 2024. In the letter, ECA noted, “The federal government has an obligation to these communities to make progress in cleaning up the contamination left behind at the sites, and meeting that obligation will require significantly more funding for the EM program.”

Increased funding for the entire EM program is necessary beginning in FY24 to allow the Department to accelerate its work on critical projects that will reduce these projected end dates for cleanup and provide long-term cost savings for the program. At the current pace, the total cost of EM work is nearly $723 billion, and projected end dates for cleanup may take decades—2078 at Hanford, 2047 at Oak Ridge, and 2065 at Savannah River Site.

The budget rollout is underway, as agencies including DOE will provide more budget justification documents to the public and will testify on Capitol Hill in the coming weeks.

Read ECA’s analysis from last week’s budget release here.