Reid becomes budget pointman on Yucca project

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, June 6, 2001 | 9:08 a.m.

Reid's new duties

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., will have a number of responsibilities in the new Democrat-controlled Senate aside from being the Majority Whip. Reid's committee duties:

WASHINGTON -- As the Senate reorganizes itself under Democratic control this week, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., assumes more than a new role as majority whip -- he becomes budget pointman for the Yucca Mountain project.

Democrats seized the Senate today, claiming a 50-49 seat advantage over Republicans, plus the new Independent, Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont. The power shift allows Democrats to control Senate agenda and action in committees, where much of the Senate's work is done.

Reid now will be chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, aides said. That's important to Nevada because the 12-member panel is the first group of lawmakers to tinker with budgets submitted by the Department of Energy, which manages the proposed Yucca Mountain project.

That means Reid will be the top lawmaker on a panel that initially controls purse strings for Yucca.

This year the DOE requested $19.2 billion, including $445 million for Yucca Mountain's project office. Reid vows to decrease Yucca funding from his new perch, which could have a slowing effect on the project.

But slashing the Yucca budget is never an easy task given numerous Yucca supporters in the Senate, aides said.

"Just trimming it is an accomplishment," one top aide said.

Reid said he had no targeted Yucca budget cuts in mind.

"I have to be realistic," Reid said. "I will do what I can do."

Reid's Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water also considers spending for such projects as flood control, river research, beach restoration, and budgets for national laboratories.

Reid, who is also the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, agreed to let Jeffords take command of that panel. But Reid likely will be chairman of the panel's Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee, which oversees spending on drinking water and sewage projects.

Every six years the committee also sets a spending formula that doles out money to states for the nation's interstate and highway system. Nevada got about $210 million in federal highway money last year, plus about $60 million for other Southern Nevada transportation projects.

Reid has access to highway spending on another panel, the Appropriations subcommittee on transportation.

Sitting on the Appropriations Committee gives lawmakers an opportunity to slip money for specific home-state projects into spending bills.

A few lawmakers, led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., disdainfully call that money "pork." But many lawmakers often proudly take credit for funneling federal money to their states for important projects, including Reid.

A study by watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste last October said that the 22 senators and representatives who serve on the Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittees (and make up about 5 percent of Congress) sent 30 percent of the money to their states.

Among the pork projects Reid secured that year: $1 million for Nevada's Cancer Registry and Vital Statistics and Birth Defects Registry. Pork critics said that had nothing to do with the energy and water bill. Reid also got $3 million to establish a UNLV program for department-wide management of environmental, scientific and medical electronic records.

It's not yet clear whether Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., will have to switch committees as part of committee reshuffling. He is a member of the Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs; Commerce, Science & Transportation; Small Business; and Aging committees.

Ensign said he is pleased with his assignments and hopes he doesn't lose them. He said he was disappointed that he is now in the minority party, but said Reid's ascendence to Majority Whip and his committee seats were a "silver lining" for Nevada in the newly organized Senate.

"That strengthens our hand," Ensign said.