More money for nuclear cleanup is expected to be considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee today as Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., continues to chip away at Hanford budget shortfalls.

Murray worked to add $300 million for cleanup at Hanford and other Department of Energy nuclear sites to the supplemental appropriations bill for fiscal 2008.

"Local jobs and critical cleanup deadlines have been put at risk at Hanford because of administration neglect," Murray said in a statement. "This funding is a way to restore some of the shortfall that has been created through years and years of administration cuts."

She's particularly concerned about the Bush administration's proposed budget for fiscal 2009 cleanup at Hanford and other sites, according to her staff. As proposed at $5.5 billion, it could require up to 600 people to be laid off, according to DOE. More than half of the layoffs could be at Hanford.

The additional $300 million could save up to 600 jobs, according to Murray's staff.

However, the bill has hurdles to clear.

If it advances to consideration by the full Senate as expected, it likely will face opposition from Republicans to some of its spending. It will require 60 votes to pass. In addition, the president has threatened a veto of its domestic spending. The bill also includes money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Murray also has worked to add $500 million for DOE nuclear cleanup to the Senate budget resolution for fiscal year 2009, but that money is not included in the House budget resolution. When a 2009 appropriations bill might be passed also is in question, given spending limits imposed by President Bush and the presidential election.

The budget proposed by the Bush administration for fiscal 2009 would provide $5.5 billion for DOE cleanup work, down from peak funding of $7.3 billion in fiscal 2005 and down $167 million from current levels.

The proposed 2009 budget would cause DOE to miss 23 legal deadlines for nuclear cleanup nationwide, according to DOE. Among the changes at Hanford would be a drop in the budget for cleaning up the Columbia River corridor -- the reactor areas and the 300 Area just north of Richland -- from $223 million to $165 million. Money for retrieving temporarily buried waste and shipping any of that found to be transuranic off-site would drop from $242 million to $176 million.