Near Miss: Department of Energy Avoids Termination

At noon yesterday, President Clinton announced $10.6 billion in proposed cuts in the Department of Energy’s budget over the next five years. It could have been worse: there has been considerable speculation in Washington over the last few days that the administration might have recommended DOE’s termination.

However, the Department of Energy, and physics-related research sponsored by DOE, are by no means out of the woods. Congressional Republicans will offer a counter proposal to President Clinton’s FY 1996 budget request containing deeper budget cuts. Shortly before the president’s announcement, new Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) was asked if Republicans would recommend termination of cabinet departments. His response: “Absolutely, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are two.” Last November, incoming Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-KS) cited DOE as a possible target, saying “I don’t see any useful purpose it serves. It can be wrapped into something else.”

Yesterday’s White House announcement was accompanied by a “Highlights” document explaining the proposed DOE budget cuts. They are: 1.) termination of the clean coal program, 2.) privatization of the Naval Petroleum Reserves, 3.) sale of uranium, 4.) streamlining nuclear waste clean-up, and 5.) “significantly reduce costs in DOE’s applied research programs through requiring more cost-sharing and through cuts in lower priority programs.”

At an afternoon briefing, DOE Deputy Secretary Bill White stated that many funding decisions must yet be made. DOE’s budget is $17.7 billion, most of which goes to contractors. He said they are going “to be expected to run their business like you would a normal business in a competitive market, rather than as some kind of government contracting operation with a semi-entitlement mentality.”

Citing the $10.6 billion in proposed cuts, White said, “these numbers may change, but not the bottom line. The bottom line we are planning on. The allocation within the five year savings may change based upon a number of activities which...the department is doing, and our review of additional information we get about different things....” White said the total could ultimately be higher.

The first activity White discussed was the [Robert] Galvin Commission examining DOE’s national laboratories, “which are so important to this nation, and which are at the heart of this department’s operations. Those laboratories are extremely valuable national assets, but we want to make sure that they are run in a way that is competitive with what you would see in the private sector, and that they respond to real needs of not only the Department of Energy but the whole community of users who depend on Department of Energy programs for the applied research done at those laboratories. And that includes the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and private enterprise.... What the Galvin Commission says about those labs and their operations...will be critical in figuring out how we allocate the $10.6 billion.”

White was asked how DOE could fund the Advanced Neutron Source, ITER, and TPX under this budget climate. He was specifically asked if fusion projects “are essentially dead.” White’s reply: “That might be premature. It means that before we undertake a major new project we have some hard choices that we’re going to make, and we are making them. It means that we won’t submit budgets that the Secretary [O’Leary] and I saw when we first got here that showed this slope of increasing out years [costs].... With respect to individual projects, we are both doing a review and preparation for the finalization of the 1996 budget to be submitted.... And with respect to fusion in particular, there is an advisory group that is going to assist us in making a choice on that program.... You have obviously spotted some issues there that are the same issues that we are confronting.”

An additional question was asked about the national laboratories, and whether DOE had already decided to close a lab or a technology center. White responded: “The Galvin Commission is going to...tell us what we can do with the labs.” He added, referring to the physics advisory group, “That is, and let’s be quite candid, what is the extent of future commitments that we make on fusion projects and the like. But that decision, the decision concerning particular facilities, has not been made.”

The Galvin Commission is scheduled to report in February. White doubts that any decisions will be made before DOE’s FY 1996 budget request is sent to Congress in February.