Oak Ridge Today

Trump administration requests more money for DOE, NNSA

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 2:50 p.m.

The Trump administration has requested more money for the U.S. Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration than it did last year, but the impact could vary at Oak Ridge’s major federal sites.

The NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency within DOE, would get a big increase of $2.2 billion, compared to spending levels enacted in fiscal year 2017. The boost would raise NNSA funding to $15.1 billion. The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is an NNSA site.

The NNSA proposal is more than $1 billion higher than the $13.9 billion requested by the Trump administration in fiscal year 2018, which was up $1.4 billion over the fiscal year 2016 spending level ($12.5 billion).

Oak Ridge Today reported last year that Y-12’s funding would have been up 25 percent under President Donald Trump’s budget request for the current fiscal year, if Congress had approved the proposed spending levels. [Read more…]

Feinstein: President’s budget request could lead to 1,600 layoffs at ORNL

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Sign

Photo by ORNL

 

Note: This story was updated at 12:20 p.m. June 28.

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday said the president’s budget request for the next fiscal year could lead to a 33 percent workforce reduction at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. About 1,600 of the lab’s roughly 4,800 employees could be laid off, the senator’s office said.

Feinstein, a Democrat from California, and other members of the Senate Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, including Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a Republican who is chair of the subcommittee, had a budget hearing with new Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Wednesday afternoon, June 21.

Across the U.S. Department of Energy, a workforce of 29,000 employees could be reduced by 23 percent at labs such as ORNL that are managed for DOE and not for the National Nuclear Security Administration, Feinstein said. (The NNSA is a semi-autonomous agency within DOE.) That would be a reduction of 6,700 employees at the non-NNSA, non-weapons labs, the senator said.

“Every non-NNSA lab would see drastic employment cuts under this proposed budget,” said Feinstein, the ranking Democratic member of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. “We must change this budget.”

The potential layoffs at DOE labs would be the result of a budget request submitted by President Donald Trump to Congress on Tuesday, May 23. But the president’s budget request has not yet been approved by Congress, and it has run into bipartisan opposition. Some legislators have declared the budget request “dead on arrival,” and others have said they won’t even review some proposed cuts such as a 30 percent funding reduction for the State Department. [Read more…]

Proposal to eliminate ARC wouldn’t affect current airport funding, but could affect future funding

Posted at
By Leave a Comment

Image via Billy Stair presentation at Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority General Aviation Committee meeting on Wednesday, March 15, 2017.

Image via Billy Stair presentation at Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority General Aviation Committee meeting on Wednesday, March 15, 2017.

 

The Oak Ridge Airport project has received $2 million in funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission, and that money wouldn’t be affected by the president’s proposal to eliminate the independent agency in the next fiscal year, a spokesperson said.

But future funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission will depend upon what Congress decides to do with ARC and whether it continues funding the commission, said Becky Huckaby, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority.

The budget request released by President Donald Trump on Tuesday, May 23, proposes to eliminate the Appalachian Regional Commission and other independent agencies, providing funding only for the orderly closure of the agencies. The request would apply to Fiscal Year 2018, which starts October 1.

ARC is one of the funding sources for the Oak Ridge Airport, which could cost an estimated $35 million to $40 million and have a mix of state and federal funding, and local funding from the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority, or MKAA. Besides ARC, other direct and indirect funding sources include the U.S. Department of Energy, which would provide the land; the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA; the Tennessee Aeronautics Commission; and the Tennessee Department of Transportation. [Read more…]