Washington, D.C. – As Chairman of the Nuclear Cleanup Caucus, Congressman Doc Hastings today led a bipartisan group of lawmakers in urging key House appropriators to provide additional funding for the Environmental Management program for Fiscal Year 2009. The Environmental Management program is responsible for cleaning up nuclear waste sites, including Hanford, that were created by the nation's World War II and Cold War era nuclear weapons production program. In a letter to the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, the lawmakers asked for assistance in restoring funds for nuclear cleanup to $6.6 billion. Hastings' letter was signed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers who represent communities and states that are home to nuclear cleanup sites or closed sites.

May 7, 2008

The Honorable Peter J. Visclosky

House Appropriations Committee

Subcommittee on Energy and Water

2362-B Rayburn House Offrce Building

Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable David L. Hobson

Ranking Member

House Appropriations Committee

Subcommittee on Energy and Water

2362-B Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Visclosky and Ranking Member Hobson:

As you develop the Fiscal Year 2009 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, we respectfully request that you restore funding for the Department of Energy's Environmental Management program to $6.6 billion.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has a legal responsibility to cleanup the federal government's nuclear weapons manufacturing and testing sites across the nation. In President Bush's first term, DOE and the Office of Management and Budget launched an accelerated cleanup initiative that promised increased Environmental Management budgets with a focus first on closing several small sites such as Rocky Flats, Portsmouth and Fernald. With accelerated cleanup came a commitment from DOE that once these sites were cleaned up" the higher level of funding would be distributed among the larger, more complex sites like Hanford, Idaho, Oak Ridge and Savannah River.

Under the accelerated cleanup initiative, funding for Environmental Management cleanup peaked at $7.3 billion in Fiscal Year 2005. DOE declared Rocky Flats clean in 2005 and the Fernald site cleanup complete in 2007. DOE estimates that it saved tens of billions of dollars and several decades by accelerating cleanup at these two sites alone. Accelerated cleanup has been shown to save money over the long run and eliminate threats to human and environmental health and safety.

Despite successful closure of several small sites, the shift of funding from closed sites to the larger sites never materialized. In fact, the budget for the Environmental Management program has dropped over $ I billion in just three years - falling from $6.6 billion in Fiscal Year 2006 to $5.5 billion in the Fiscal Year 2009 request submitted by President Bush in February.

Reduced funding limits progress both at DOE‘s large sites and at its smaller sites, such as Paducah, Portsmouth, and West Valley and numerous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites such as Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and the Nevada Test Site.

DOE will miss 23 legal milestones as a direct result of funding shortfalls in the Fiscal Year 2009 budget request. Perhaps more troubling, DOE has stated that due to these cuts, a substantial amount of work necessary to meet future milestones and obligations will not be performed. As a consequence, DOE will continue to fall behind in meeting legal cleanup obligations well into the future.

Under the reduced budget proposed for Fiscal Year 2009, cleanup would ultimately take longer and cost taxpayers more due to increasing maintenance costs on aging facilities and equipment, escalating operational costs, and more stringent security requirements. By delaying cleanup, reduced budgets mean greater environmental and safety risks and cause the layoff of hundreds of skilled workers.

We believe that DOE must have a sustainable cleanup budget that receives steady and reliable funding from one year to the next. We are concerned about the inadequate Environmental Management budget requested by the Administration and about the continuing downward trend in the nuclear cleanup funding. It is for this reason that we ask your assistance in reversing these proposed cuts and restoring the nuclear cleanup budget to a responsible level of $6.6 billion.

Sincerely,

Doc Hastings, Norm Dicks, Zach Wamp, Mike Simpson, Maurice Hinchley, John Spratt, Brian Higgins, Dan McDermott, John J. Duncan, Jr., Bill Sali, Ed Whitfield, Adam Smith, Bob Inglis, Charlie Wilson, Jean Schmidt, Rick Larsen, Ed Perlmutter, Paul Broun, Ellen Tauscher, Shelley Berkley, Heather Wilson, J. Gresham Barrett, Earl Blumenauer, Steve Pearce, Randy Kuhl, Mark Udall, Peter DeFazio, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Brian Baird, David Reichert, Greg Walden, Darlene Hooley, David Wu, Jay Inslee, Lincoln Davis, Diana DeGette, Zach Spade

Members of Congress