A three-bill package that would provide funding above 2025 fiscal year levels to the Hanford site and the nation’s national labs, including Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, has passed its first hurdle after receiving bipartisan support from U.S representatives. 

The House approved H.R. 6938 on Jan. 8 with a vote of 397-28, according to a release from Energy Communities Alliance. The bill package next heads to the Senate, which could take the bill up as early as next week ahead of a Jan. 30 deadline to avoid another federal shutdown. 

The bill package would provide $10.4 billion to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, including for the continued operation of the Lower Snake River dams.  

The ongoing legacy cleanup at the Hanford site is allocated $3.2 billion, a $200 million increase from the previous budget, according to U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse’s office. 

PNNL would potentially benefit from several elements of the bills, including: 

• $8.4 billion for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which funds research at PNNL and several other national labs. 
• $65 million for PNNL’s Environmental and Molecular Sciences Laboratory. 
• $96 million for PNNL’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement user facility. 
• $2.37 billion and $2.9 billion for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which both have substantial research portfolios at PNNL. 

“As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, my immediate focus in the new year is passing our remaining government funding legislation and avoiding another costly shutdown," Newhouse said in a statement. “This package gets us closer to that goal, with half of the bills having now been passed by the House.” 

While the Senate has yet to take up the legislation, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, recently issued comments in support of the bill package, which she said rejected proposed draconian cuts from the White House. 

“It protects essential funding for our public lands, rejects steep proposed cuts to public safety grants that keep our communities safe, and boosts funding for key flood mitigation projects,” Murray said in a statement. “Importantly, passing these bills will help ensure that Congress, not President Trump and Russ Vought, decides how taxpayer dollars are spent – by once again providing hundreds of detailed spending directives and reasserting congressional control over these incredibly important spending decisions.”