Perry declares support for PNNL, Hanford; vague on funding

In his first visit to the Tri-Cities, Energy Secretary Rick Perry offered enthusiastic support for the Hanford cleanup and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, but gave no assurance he will advocate to maintain current funding.

Perry’s first Northwest visit began with a tour of McNary Dam on Monday and continued Tuesday with stops at the national laboratory, the Volpentest HAMMER federal training center and the Hanford nuclear site.

With scientists, the former governor of Texas alternated between self-effacing – reminding his audience he once competed on Dancing With the Stars – and serious. He was supportive of the lab’s work and lavished praise on the work DOE-funded scientists are doing to keep the nation and its infrastructure safe.

PNNL is the fifth national laboratory he’s visited in his five months on the job. Perry said he’s been wowed by their work.

“I’ve referred to the national labs as the crown jewels, which they are, but it’s the staff that’s the real crown jewels,” he told PNNL staffers.

Perry, who famously forgot the name of the Department of Energy as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has apparently become its top cheerleader.

“Being governor of Texas is the best job I’ve ever had. Being energy secretary is the coolest job I’ve ever had,” he said.

Perry tackled the elephant in the room – the sometimes tense exchanges he’s had regarding Hanford funding with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. – in his opening remarks.

“Sen. Cantwell was pretty direct with me,” he recalled, drawing nervous laughter.

Cantwell and U.S. Reps. Dan Newhouse and Greg Walden spent the morning touring the U.S. Department of Energy lab operated by Battelle in Richland.

Cantwell and the other Northwest Democrat senators opposed Perry’s confirmation. Cantwell, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, pledged to hold him to assurances he gave that he would support the cleanup and has called him on it during Congressional hearings.

The Trump administration has proposed cutting this department’s $32 billion budget by about 10 percent, with serious implications for both the Hanford cleanup and the PNNL workforce. The House and Senate appropriations committees both have proposed restoring funding, with the Senate version enhancing it.

Perry refused to say which, if any, budget he supports, calling it Congress’ job to appropriate funding and his job to deliver “a good product at a good cost.”

He didn’t plan to advocate for the labs or Hanford when he returns to Washington, D.C.

“I don’t have a message for the president,” he said.

He ribbed Cantwell, who was standing to his right, about “squeezing” as much money out of the budget as possible for Hanford and the laboratory system.

“As an appropriator, budgets are always a work in process,” he said. “I never get too hung up on a budget.”

Perry embraced PNNL’s mission of scientific discovery and said he supports the work of the national laboratories to keep ahead of the increasingly complicated threats facing the globe, a nod to Sen. Cantwell’s stated goal of promoting cybersecurity as a key mission for the labs.

He recalled gaining his first glimpse of the department’s global reach came when he represented DOE at a gathering of seven of the G-20 countries in Rome in April.

On the return trip, a man recognized him. Perry noted he wasn’t sure if his fellow passenger recognized him as the former governor of Texas, two-time presidential candidate or Dancing With the Stars contestant.

“I work for you,” the man told him after takeoff. He works for DOE in Paris, coordinating with the International Police Organization, aka Interpol.

Perry said he was struck by the connection between the research taking place within the national laboratory system and the international implications.

“It began making sense to me,” he said.

Perry touched briefly on climate science in a brief news conference Tuesday during his tour of the HAMMER facility. He said he is a long-standing supporter of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and noted that Texas reduced its CO2 and other emissions substantially during his time as governor.

“It’s what we’re supposed to be doing,” he said.