WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY’S FY 2022 NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND CLEANUP BUDGET REQUEST of Friday, May 28, 2021 – Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (of which Savannah River Site Watch is a proud member)
The White House is releasing its detailed Fiscal Year 2022 budget on Friday, May 28. A so-called
“skinny budget” was released on April 9 that increased Department of Energy (DOE) funding to
$46.1 billion, which reportedly includes major new investments in clean energy and climate change
abatement. That said, historically roughly 60% of DOE’s funding has been earmarked for nuclear
weapons production and cleanup of Cold War wastes and contamination. The pending budget
release will finally provide details on those programs.
Because the budget release is so late Congress has already announced that it can’t consider the
annual Defense Authorization Act until September. Related appropriations bills will no doubt be
delayed too. This means that the government will probably have to run on a Continuing
Resolution(s) for much of FY 2022 (which begins October 1, 2021).
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability strongly opposed the massive 25% FY 2021 increase that
the Trump Administration gave to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s)
nuclear weapons programs and proposed cuts to Department of Energy cleanup. In addition, DOE’s
nuclear weapons and environmental management programs have been on the Government
Accountability Office’s “High Risk List” for project mismanagement and waste of taxpayers’
dollars for 28 consecutive years. Related, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has just released
a report that projects a 28% increase in costs for so-called “modernization” of U.S. nuclear forces
that between the Defense Department and DOE is expected to cost around $1.7 trillion over 30
years.
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, a 34-year-old network of groups from communities
downwind and downstream of U.S. nuclear weapons sites, will be analyzing the following critical
issues. For details, contact the ANA leaders listed at the end of this Advisory.
full release, with issues to look for and contacts near DOE sites: https://ananuclear.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/What-to-Look-For-in-FY22-Budget-ANA.pdf