Budget deal provides solid budget for Hanford

RICHLAND – That bipartisan deal to fund the federal government through September would provide a solid budget for the Hanford Nuclear Reservation if approved this week.

The proposed budget for the current fiscal year would be $2.3 billion, according to the agreement worked out Sunday night by Republican and Democrat negotiators.

The Tri-City Herald says that matches the budget totals that Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., worked to include a year ago in the proposed Senate version of the fiscal 2017 budget.

More than 9,200 people work at Hanford, which is located near Richland. Most of them are involved in cleaning up decades of nuclear waste left over from the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons.

President Donald Trump is expected to release his budget request in late May.