Re: BUDGET CUT RUMORS

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

At the Federal Facilities Environmental Restoration Dialogue 
Committee meeting in San Francisco last week, the Energy 
Department actually released its tentative FY96 Enviromental 
Management Budget. The request formally rises to $6,592 billion 
from $5,984 billion in FY95, but the new figure includes $843 
million in other program not previously counted as part of 
Environmental Management. Thus, the comparable figure is $5,749 
billion, a reduction of $235 million. The largest item in the $843 
million is $685 million "for managing cleanup at former defense 
facilities at the Savannah River Site."

Department-wide, the proposed Environmental Management budget 
for FY 96 is:

Waste Management, Corrective Action $2,716,551,000
Environmental Restoration $1,993,731,000
Nuclear Materials & Facilities Stabilization $1,679,711,000
Technology Development $390,510,000
Uranium Enrichment D & D $288,807,000
Analysis, Education, and Risk...? $157,022,000
Compliance & Program Coord. $81,251,000
Transportation Management $16,158,000
SUBTOTAL $7,323,741,000

Use of Prior Year Balances ($300,000,000)
Savannah River Pension Funds ($37,000,000)
D&D Fund Deposit Offset ($350,000,000)
D&D Fund Foreign Fee ($45,000,000)

TOTAL $6,591,741,000

(D&D=decontamination & decommissioning of buildings)

 More important, the Energy Department confirmed reports 
that the budget will be cut significantly in future years. Funding will 
gradually be cut through 1998 (more than a billion dollars that in 
FY98), and then it will level off. However, even after planned 
savings through efficiency, the gap between funding and 
requirements (needs) will rise. That is, in the FY 2000, even if the 
Department managed to share more than $2 billion from its 
Environmental Management budget through efficiency gains, the 
budget will come up $2.5 billion short.

 It is widely agreed that the Energy Department cannot meet 
these budget goals unless the state governments where it has 
facilities agree to renegotiate their (supposedly) legally binding 
Federal Facilities Agreements.