Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson joined fellow members of the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus in sending letters to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and to House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt and Ranking Member Paul Ryan requesting that funding for the Environmental Management (EM) Program be included in their FY10 Budget request.

To Secretary Chu the Caucus wrote, “The Bush Administration went from proposing record levels of cleanup funding to proposing a budget for 2009 that would have failed to meet cleanup obligations, halted several cleanup projects and cost hundreds of jobs. Higher funding is not just warranted, it is required under legal commitments made by the federal government. Under reduced budgets, cleanup ultimately takes longer and costs taxpayers more. By delaying cleanup, environmental and safety risks are increased. It is critical that cleanup funding no longer be subject to budget highs and lows, which waste taxpayer dollars and lead to surging, and then fading, employment. This is unfair to workers and damaging to local communities. For example, it would be extremely harmful if stimulus funding for cleanup was used as an excuse to reduce annual budgets.”

“At the Idaho National Laboratory, cleanup is vitally important to their mission. As our scientists and engineers work to develop new forms of energy to meet our future energy needs, we must ensure that DOE and Congress uphold their commitment to the State of Idaho and our citizens to clean up the legacies left over from our past,” said Simpson.

In a similar letter to the House Budget Committee the Caucus explained, “Cleanup at our sites will extend well into the future - beyond the life of any one budget, appropriations bill or stimulus plan. Achieving the steady, dependable levels of funding required for cleanup success will require a continued commitment. Congress has the opportunity to set the right course now under the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Resolution. We respectfully request your assistance in putting the EM program on a path forward that enables the federal government’s existing legal cleanup commitments to be kept, builds upon the success achieved under the accelerated cleanup initiative, and makes the cleanup budget a priority.”

The bipartisan House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus has long been committed to funding the nuclear cleanup program at levels necessary to protect the environment, ensure progress, keep skilled workers on the job, and uphold the government's legal commitments to the states. The Caucus includes: Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA), Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), Rep. Zac Wamp (R-TN), Rep. J. Gresham Barrett (R-SC), Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-TN), Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY), Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Rep. John Duncan Jr. (R-TN),  Rep. David Wu (D-OR), Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), Rep. Paul Brown (R-GA), Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA), Rep. Walt Minnick (D-ID), Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA), Rep. Harry Teague (D-NM).