House minority whip expects new anti-Yucca votes

Erin Neff

Tuesday, April 9, 2002 | 11:19 a.m.

The House of Representative's second-ranking Democratic said she thinks opponents of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain will make strong gains from a 2000 vote on the issue.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House minority whip, admitted Monday during a stop in Las Vegas that Nevada has practically no chance of winning a vote in the Republican-controlled House. But she pledged to work with Nevada officials to get a large enough vote in the House to help affect the outcome in the Senate, where opponents of the dump believe they have a chance to sustain Gov. Kenny Guinn's veto of the project.

"We salute the decision of Gov. Guinn and we will do everything in our power to get the biggest possible vote," Pelosi said, referring to the lobbying work she, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., plan in coming weeks.

In 2000, the House voted 253-167 in favor of a Yucca Mountain item. Pelosi trumpeted her party as Nevada-friendly, saying only 18 Republicans voted to oppose the dump, compared with 147 Democrats. Two Independents also voted against the dump.

"I say that not in a partisan vein, but to tell you what a big fight we have ahead," Pelosi said.

She declined to give an estimate on how the next vote in the House -- expected in May -- will turn out. Today Pelosi was to meet with Gephardt, Berkley and others to analyze how much support there is for Nevada's position.

"We want this to be a big number so that the senators have a comfort level," Pelosi said. "However great our numbers were before, they'll be greater now."

Pelosi said sustaining Guinn's veto is a Democratic priority. And, she added, it will be easier for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to get 51 votes if the House vote shows greater opposition to the dump than it did in 2000.

"We're going to strategically look at each vote," Berkley said. "More than the numbers, it's a strategic location of where those votes are."

Berkley and Pelosi both said Nevada's strategy in the House will be to target representatives in states with senators that are on the fence.

"We're not yielding one grain of sand, or one vote on this," Pelosi added.

Pelosi said she had not yet been able to get information from House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office on when a Yucca vote would be scheduled.

Under the rules of the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the House will vote on the item first. Both the House and Senate must vote on the issue within 90 legislative days.

Pelosi said President Bush could "honor his statements" to Nevadans by asking Republican House leaders to delay a vote on Yucca so that representatives can learn more about the issue.

But Pelosi also coyly avoided a question about whether she and other Democratic leaders can delay the item from coming to a vote.

"Let's just say we have our parliamentary arrows in our quivers," Pelosi said.

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