Miller: Gibbons a nuclear do-nothing

Brendan Riley

Friday, April 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Bob Miller called freshman Rep. Jim Gibbons a do-nothing after Gibbons criticized Nevada's two U.S. senators for their strategy to keep a nuclear waste dump out of the state.

"He's the only person who has attacked other members of our congressional delegation, and he hasn't demonstrated he can do one thing" to fight the dump, Miller said Thursday.

Gibbons, R-Nev., "ought to show he can actually accomplish something in what has been a bipartisan effort -- with the marked exception of himself," the governor added.

"I would hope he would start involving himself in some constructive participation in meeting this issue head-on," the Democratic governor said, adding that Gibbons should help get House votes needed to sustain a presidential veto of pending nuclear dump legislation.

Gibbons accused Sens. Richard Bryan and Harry Reid, both D-Nev., on Wednesday of failing to stop the bill in the Senate. He said they erred in agreeing to limit debate rather than force a vote on the debate issue.

Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., said the senators' maneuver didn't make sense to him either, but he added they must have had their reasons for it.

Bryan and Reid issued a joint statement saying the reason the nuclear waste legislation is on the floor "'is because the Republican leadership has made it a top priority."

"Rather than criticizing our strategy, our Republican colleagues should be helping by calling on (key Republicans) to pull this bill," they said.

Reid and Bryan have maintained they have at least 34 votes against the bill, the minimum needed to sustain a veto in the 100-member Senate. President Clinton has promised to veto the bill.

Ensign said Clinton's veto threat "now looks like our only chance." He added he hopes Clinton will make good on his promise.

The measure designates the Nevada Test Site for interim storage of nuclear spent fuel until a permanent repository is approved and completed at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Originally, the legislation called for storage at the Test Site to begin by November 1999. But the bill's sponsor, Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, introduced an amendment Wednesday to move the date to December 2002.

The date would be advanced another two years if Yucca Mountain is deemed unsuitable as a repository site.