Senator Murray: “As long as I am the Senate Appropriations Chair, Congress is not going to shortchange the Hanford cleanup, the workers who power that mission, or the communities living nearby. This bill also makes crucial investments in our national labs, including PNNL, keeping our nation on the cutting edge of research and development and bringing good-paying jobs to the Tri-Cities.”
ICYMI: Chair Murray’s Opening Remarks at Full Committee Markup
ICYMI: Senate Appropriations Committee Unanimously Approves Energy and Water Development Bill
Washington, D.C. — On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee, led by Chair Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), voted to advance the Energy and Water Development funding bill for Fiscal Year 2024 that Senator Murray led the committee in drafting. Overall, the draft legislation provides $58.095 billion in total funding for the Department of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and independent agencies to protect our energy grid, improve waterway infrastructure and drought resiliency, maintain our nation’s ports and harbors, propel cutting-edge scientific research, and further our nuclear nonproliferation and essential environmental clean-up efforts across the country, including at the Hanford site in Richland, Washington. The Committee voted unanimously, 29-0, to advance the legislation, where it now awaits consideration by the full Senate.
The legislation includes $3.032 billion for Hanford—an increase of $195 million above last year’s funding level—which includes $1.042 billion for Richland operations (a $35.5 million increase) and $1.89 billion for the Office of River Protection (a $160 million increase). The increased funding for Richland includes $10.7 million in Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILT) funding for the Tri-Cities communities near the site. The draft legislation also funds a wide array of other programs and projects important to Washington state, including an initial $50 million investment in the construction of the Howard Hanson Dam Fish Passage facility and $38 million for the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan. Additionally, it provides a historic $2.77 billion for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund—a longtime priority for Senator Murray—to invest in our nation’s port and waterway infrastructure, including in Washington state.
In addition, Senator Murray secured more than $25 million in the draft legislation in Congressionally Directed Spending requests for seven critical projects in Washington state. This does not include funding for national programs that will later be allocated on a competitive or formula-specific basis.
“The Energy and Water bill we passed today deals with everything from absolute essentials like getting communities and farmers water, to managing serious threats like the climate crisis and nuclear arms,” Senator Murray said at today’s markup. “The investments in this bill help keep our country competitive by investing in Washington state’s ports, harbors, and waterways, and help secure our energy grid—so we can reduce our dependence on foreign countries, lower energy prices, and make sure our state can stay continue to lead the world in clean energy technology. Whether it’s farmers in the Yakima Valley, workers at the Port of Seattle, or Washington state’s sovereign Tribes—I have made certain that Washington state’s priorities are heard loud and clear in this legislation.”
“Crucially, this bill provides record funding for the Hanford site—more than ever before—in a very challenging year,” Murray continued. “As I have made abundantly clear, as long as I am the Senate Appropriations Chair, Congress is not going to shortchange the Hanford cleanup, the workers who power that mission, or the communities living nearby. This bill also makes crucial investments in our national labs, including PNNL, keeping our nation on the cutting edge of research and development and bringing good-paying jobs to the Tri-Cities.”
In the draft legislation, Murray secured more $25.455 million in Congressionally Directed Spending requests for seven important projects in Washington state:
- $500,000 for continued work on a comprehensive village development plan to address impacts to Tribal villages, housing sites, and related structures as a result of the construction of the Dalles, Bonneville, McNary, and John Day dams.
- $2.692 million for the Easton Bull Trout Research and Recovery Facility, which continues implementation of the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan and supports the research and recovery of Endangered Species Act-listed bull trout. This is a joint project between Kittitas Reclamation District, the Yakama Nation, and the Bureau of Reclamation.
- $5.5 million for important maintenance and repairs to the locks at the Lake Washington Ship Canal.
- $180,000 for sediment monitoring at Mount St. Helens.
- $9.675 million for construction for improvements to drainage of Cascade Creek at Mud Mountain Dam.
- $1.9 million to continue pre-construction engineering and design for Tacoma Harbor, including deepening the Blair Waterway and channel widening for improved vessel navigation.
- $5 million for the University of Washington’s Tidal-Powered Ocean Observation project to develop and deploy oceanographic sensing packages powered by tidal currents.
The legislation also included important funding and report language for national programs that are particularly important to Washington state, including:
- Report language explicitly directing the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to fully implement language Senator Murray championed in the 2020 Water Resources Development Act that requires the Corps to provide additional funding to Donor and Energy Transfer ports, which contribute more to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund than they can access. Seattle and Tacoma are both Donor ports and this language will ensure that they get their fair share from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. This is in addition to $58 million included for Donor and Energy Transfer ports, a $2 million increase over last year’s funding level, also authorized by Senator Murray in the 2020 Water Resources Development Act.
- $8.43 billion for the Office of Science—a $330 million increase over last year’s funding level—which supports basic scientific research, including at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
- $940 million for Earth and Environmental Systems Science, a $8 million increase over last year’s funding level. The bill includes $65 million for PNNL’s Environmental and Molecular Sciences Laboratory and $10 million for construction of PNNL’s new Microbial Molecular Phenotyping Capability project. As part of this funding, $30 million was included for observational assets and research on land-water interfaces at national laboratories, including PNNL.
- $37 million for Energy Delivery Grid Operations Technology, an increase of $6 million above last year’s funding level. Increased funding would support efforts by PNNL to develop a national platform to host the data necessary for grid reliability modeling and analytics to support the clean energy transition.
- $200 million for the Water Power Technologies Office, a $21 million increase over last year’s funding level. Increased funding would support ongoing infrastructure improvement projects at PNNL’s Marine and Coastal Research Laboratory in Sequim and continue the Powering the Blue Economy Initiative.
More information on the bill is available HERE.
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