DOE rolls out budget proposal for fiscal year 2009

Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman announced earlier this week President Bush’s $25 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 budget request for the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), an increase of $1.073 billion more than the FY 2008 appropriation.

The roll out of the FY 2009 budget request marks just the beginning of the annual budget process during which proposed expenditures may change as the request makes its way through Congress. The process culminates with the passage of the budget, usually prior to the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1. Lab employees should note that the budget request contains only DOE funding for Laboratory programs and does not include the other sources of funds, such as the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, which are also a part of the Laboratory’s total budget.

The DOE request continues investments to meet growing energy demand with clean, safe, affordable, reliable and diverse supplies of energy; supports the development of climate change technologies; advances environmental cleanup; and ensures the reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.  The proposed budget directly supports the development of cutting-edge carbon capture and storage technologies; begins to transform the weapons complex to address 21st century challenges; and accelerates technological breakthroughs to further the president’s Advanced Energy Initiative, and scientific leadership through the American Competitiveness Initiative.

Under the president’s budget request, the Laboratory would receive $1.1 billion, down slightly from the $1.16 billion appropriated for FY 2008. Budget tables specific to the Laboratory are available on DOE’s Website (see "Laboratory table" under Summary Budget Documents)

Budget request highlights unveiled Monday include:

NNSA ($9.1 billion) The FY 2009 NNSA budget requests $9.1 billion, an increase of $287 million above the FY 2008 enacted level, to promote national security by maintaining the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile and promoting nuclear nonproliferation and threat reduction to address the realities of the 21st century.  The NNSA budget requests $6.6 billion, a $320.6 million increase more than the FY 2008 appropriation, for its weapons program to meet the immediate national security requirements of the stockpile, and continue progress toward transforming the nuclear weapons complex to a much smaller size by 2030.

The Department’s FY 2009 request for nonproliferation activities includes $1.8 billion for detecting, securing, eliminating and disposing of dangerous nuclear materials around the world as well as the installation of radiation detection equipment at an additional 49 foreign sites in 14 countries and at nine additional Megaports locations. This budget also supports implementation of an aggressive schedule to complete all shipments of Russian-originated highly-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel by the end of 2010 and maintains a schedule for completion of the construction of the second of two fossil-fueled power plants located in Zheleznogorsk, Russia in 2010. 

Office of Science ($4.7 billion) The Office of Science is the single largest federal supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the nation, and its $4.7 billion request will help ensure U.S. leadership across a broad range of scientific disciplines.  DOE’s Office of Science budget request, an increase of almost 20 percent more than the enacted FY 2008 appropriation, includes $100 million for the Energy Frontiers Research Initiative, a new initiative to leverage intellectual strength across the country by awarding several small competitive grants annually to universities, labs, and leading non-profit organizations to advance energy research projects.

This budget request also supports the work of DOE’s world class national science laboratories in High Energy Physics ($805 million); Fusion Energy Sciences ($493 million), including $214.5 million for the ITER magnetic fusion project; and Basic Energy Science ($1.6 billion), which supports research and operates facilities to provide the foundation for new and improved energy technologies. 

To read the complete budget request release, go to the DOE Website.