Ineel Budget Increase Sought; Job Cuts At Stake

The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory’s budget might increase next year, stabilizing a work force that has shrunk by one-third during the 1990s.

The Clinton administration is asking Congress to boost the INEEL’s budget from $852 million to $940.6 million in the federal spending year that begins Oct. 1, driven by environmental initiatives required by Gov. Phil Batt’s 1995 nuclear waste agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Navy.

It will not add many jobs, but should stop the bleeding that has seen employment drop from a high of 12,500 in 1991 to about 8,000 now, Lockheed Martin Idaho Technologies Co. President John Denson said.

The Energy Department contractor at the site will continue retraining workers to perform new jobs, but probably will not ask for voluntary job reductions as it has the last two years, Denson said.