Congressman blasts plan to take nuke waste spending off budget

Tuesday, June 8, 1999 | 6:52 a.m.

"The move to take nuclear waste 'off-budget' would open the floodgates for unrestricted, uncontrolled spending," Gibbons said in a speech on the House floor in Washington.

The House plans to vote soon on a bill that would lead to nuclear waste being stored at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Gibbons, a staunch opponent of the bill, said the House Commerce Committee made the proposed Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1999 even worse by voting recently to amend the measure to exempt it from the Budget Enforcement Act.

"By fragmenting the budget to accommodate nuclear waste interests, we would set a dangerous precedent that every other trust fund will undoubtedly attempt to follow," he said Tuesday.

Currently, only Social Security and the U.S. Postal Service are granted special "off-budget" status. That means their spending is not subject to the mandate that any increase in spending be offset by an equal decrease in another area.

"You permit funding increases without the necessary offsets and provide for little congressional oversight and accountability - all in the name of nuclear waste," Gibbons said.

"Let's not make nuclear waste more important than our seniors or our children."