With a new year new Congress, and new administration here, it is time for ECA member local governments to create and communicate their priorities for the upcoming year and beyond.
As one ECA member recognized:
“We made sure
that the [federal government] knew what we wanted and when they did not agree, we made sure that their bosses and our Congressional leaders knew our goals. The process never ended until the cleanup was complete. We had to visit Washington regularly, but it worked” - Mayor Dick Church, Miamisburg, Ohio
CREATING PRIORITIES
Priorities development relies on the knowledge of the activities in your communities, identifying opportunities, recognizing the new Congress and Administration’s goals and typically are site specific. Typically, ECA communities focus on the DOE mission and potential new missions, opportunities for local businesses, expansion of private development, and measures to reduce risks and liabilities, while always considering both short and long-term opportunities. These priorities must
incorporate the community goals, technical feasibility, cost, time, and other issues.
ECA recommends that all local elected officials and decision-makers learn about and understand the history of their site, and the site’s goals to be able to provide context and effectively argue for fulfillment of a priority.
When considering what priorities to create
and push, local governments should ask themselves the following:
- What are the future use opportunities and goals for the site?
- How can risks and costs to the community be reduced?
- What priorities are a better fit for Congress rather than DOE, and vice-versa?
- Is this a priority that can be campaigned with other groups?
In developing their priorities, communities should seek to
establish a strategy for how to achieve the goals by integrating regulatory requirements, agency success criteria and orders, Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) recommendations, and Congressional requirements and priorities, in addition to local interests and priorities.
COMMUNICATING PRIORITIES: WHO, WHEN, AND HOW
WHO: To ensure their priorities are heard, local communities must take the initiative and be ready to organize and engage a variety of groups, such as:
- Local and federal Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE) officials
- Headquarters decision makers
- Field Site Managers
- Cleanup Contractors
- Officials from other regulatory agencies
- Congressional Delegations and key
committees that oversee the appropriations and authorization issues (see ECA’s Site Profiles)
- Local Media Outlets
WHEN: Understanding the timeline of the Congressional Budget Process is
key when speaking with your Congressional Delegations. If the request is for funding a project, it is crucial to know whether it is in the DOE budget request and what the status of that bill is. See a simplified timeline below:
