Peter N. Brush Acting Assis. nt Secretary Environment, Safety and Health Peter N. Brush has served as Acting Assistant Secretary since October 1997 and as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary since December 1988. During that period, he has been the primary adviser to the Secretary of Energy in carrying out the Secretary's environment, safety, and health initiatives including independent oversight, environmental compliance, health studies and epidemiology, and worker safety and health. Mr. Brush led the creation of the new Price-Anderson enforcement program, which imposes civil and criminal penalties to DOE contractors who violate nuclear safety rules. He also initiated the DOE effort to develop and implement Integrated Safety Management as the complex-wide system for managing worker and publich health and safety issues. From January 1993 to October 1993 and from December 1988 to August 1990, Mr. Brush was also Acting Assistant Secretary. Mr. Brush is an attorney who has served in senior DOE and State Department positions involving international and domestic nuclear law and policy since 1969. From 1980 to 1985, he was posted in Vienna, Austria as the Counselor of the U.S. Mission to the International Atomic Energy Agency. He received the Senior Executive Service Presidential Meritorious Executive Rank Award in both 1994 and 1988. Mr. Brush received his B.A. degree from Brown University (1966) and his Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut (1969). He received a Master of Laws degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1973. Mr. Brush is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association and the District of Columbia Bar. Mr. EHLERS. Thank you very much. And, finally, we turn to Mr. Owendoff, but I will warn you, I will have to leave in just a minute or two to go vote, if Mr. Calvert doesn't show up. Šo I may gavel you to stop shortly. You may proceed. TESTIMONY OF MR. JAMES M. OWENDOFF, ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Mr. OWENDOFF. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate this opportunity to appear before you to discuss the Department's environmental management program and its Fiscal Year 1999 budget request. Certainly, as a cleanup guy for the Department, I'm used to batting last. Our request for Fiscal Year 1999 reflects a roughly level budget from last year with a substantial investment for privatizing certain large, cleanup projects. Maintaining the stable funding level will be critical to completing cleanup. Also, as Secretary Peña said in presenting our budget this year, this represents our continued commitment to accelerating our efforts to clean up our sites and return them for economic development or open space. At the same time, we recognize that safety is our top priority and we remain committed to meeting our environmental compliance obligations. The key accomplishments resulting from this budget will be the development and use of new technologies, accelerated cleanup and closure, establishing a new budget structure, and making historic progress on resolving the nuclear waste logjam. We have set very ambitious goals for closing several sites by the Year 2006, including the Rocky Flats site in Colorado, Weldon Springs site in Missouri, as well as the Mound and Fernald sites in Ohio. This progress is why we are eager to continue working with the Congress to support a special fund specifically designed for project closures. The environmental management budget also reflects our target for opening the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in May 1998, pending the expected certification from the Environmental Protection Agency this spring. Mr. EHLERS. My apologies, but I do have to leave in order to make the vote. The Subcommittee will stand in recess briefly, until Chairman Calvert returns. [Brief Recess.] Chairman CALVERT. The Subcommittee will be in order. Mr. Owendoff, you can complete your testimony. Thank you. Mr. OWENDOFF. Mr. Chairman, if it pleases you, I will submit the rest of my oral statement for the record. Chairman CALVERT. Without objection. You're following Mr. Doyle's lead. That's very good. [The prepared statement and attachments of Mr. Owendoff fol Statement of James M. Owendoff Acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Department of Energy Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the Science Committee U.S. House of Representatives February 25, 1998 Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Subcommittee, I appreciate this opportunity to appear before you to discuss the Department of Energy's Environmental Management (EM) program and its Fiscal Year (FY) 1999 budget request. Our request for FY 1999 reflects a roughly level budget from last year, with a substantial investment for privatizing certain large cleanup projects. As Secretary Peña said in presenting our budget this year, "This demonstrates our continued commitment to accelerating our efforts to clean up our sites and return them for economic development or open space. At the same time, we recognize that safety is our top priority and we remain committed to meeting our environmental compliance obligations." Key accomplishments resulting from this budget will be the deployment of new technologies, accelerated cleanup and closure, a new budget structure and progress on resolving the nuclear waste logjam. We have set very ambitious goals for closing several sites by the year 2006, including the Rocky Flats site in Colorado, the Weldon Spring Site in Missouri, as well as the Mound and Fernald sites in Ohio. Consequently, we are eager to continue working with The environmental quality budget also reflects our target for opening the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in May 1998, pending the expected certification from the Environmental Protection Agency this spring. In FY 1999, the WIPP should be accepting defense transuranic waste from as many as six states. This will be a crucial step forward in providing for the permanent disposal of the Department's long-lived radioactive waste. Today I would like to: Describe the Environmental Management program and present some of our significant accomplishments from the past few years. Review our commitments for FY 1999 including our strategy and vision for the future of this program. Present the FY 1999 budget request for each of the three categories of the new budget structure. I. INTRODUCTION Before discussing our FY 1999 budget request, I would like to provide an overview of our program, including some of our accomplishments - both the results on the ground in cleaning up facilities, and the variety of management reforms that we have undertaken to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the program. Perhaps the most important management reform |