Demos, Doe Say Hanford Cuts Too Much

The battle over cuts in Hanford’s nuclear cleanup budget moves to the House floor in mid-June.

House Democrats will try to undo a May vote by the House National Security Committee to slash $742 million for Hanford and other polluted weapons sites.

Tom Grumbly, cleanup chief at the U.S. Department of Energy, said the 1996 cuts go too far.

“If finally enacted, the impacts will be felt around the country through delays in cleanup actions,” Grumbly said.

Meanwhile, DOE officials told the regional Hanford Advisory Board this week that Hanford will lose another 3,000 workers in 1997.

From a peak of 18,750 contractor and government employees last year, Hanford’s work force is being cut to 14,000 this year and to 10,300 by the end of 1997, said DOE spokesman Terry Brown.

“It’s a huge total impact,” Brown said.

If the cuts are too severe, they will derail cleanup pacts with the states, including the federal government’s Tri Party Agreement with Washington state, Grumbly said.

During the May vote, Illinois Democrat Rep. Lane Evans tried to get $282 million restored for DOE by offering an amendment to shift money from the Pentagon’s “Star Wars” space defense program.

The committee held secret votes on two items: The Pentagon’s ‘black budget’ for classified projects and DOE’s nuclear cleanup.

Critics say the vote on cleanup dollars never should have been held behind closed doors.

“For a committee to do this without a hearing was really disturbing. They canceled the hearing and hadn’t sought DOE’s counsel on this,” said Tom O’Donnell, Rep. Evans’ legislative director.

Evans’ amendment failed.

Tri-Cities Republican Rep. Richard “Doc” Hastings voted with the GOP majority.

“He felt the committee had come a long way from its original plans to cut $2 billion. This was the best we could do in the current budget climate,” said Sheila Riggs, Hastings’ press secretary.

, DataTimes