GOP yanks nuke issues from Reid

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2003 | 11:08 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans slighted Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., today, removing nuclear issues from the panel on which Reid is the top Democrat.

Meeting for the first time in the new session, GOP leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee reorganized their subcommittee structure. They removed nuclear issues oversight from the Transportation, Infrastructure and Nuclear Safety subcommittee on which Reid is the top Democrat.

Republicans put nuclear issues in the Clean Air, Wetlands and Climate Change Subcommittee, where Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., is the ranking Democrat.

Such reorganizations are typical; now that the Republicans control Congress, Reid expected the change, his aides said today.

"It was a message that was sent by the Republicans" to Reid, the senator's spokeswoman, Tessa Hafen, said today.

The reorganization was turnabout -- Reid had wrangled nuclear safety topics away from the clean air panel to his transportation subcommittee when Democrats took control of the Senate in 2001.

Today's reorganization was not designed as a snub of Reid, GOP committee spokesman Mike Catanzaro said.

"It's been the long-standing position of the committee that nuclear safety was part of the clean air subcommittee, so we decided it would be best to move it back," Catanzaro said.

Nuclear issues pending include a bill sponsored by Reid aimed at making nuclear power plants more secure, a plan that the nuclear industry -- and Republicans -- have not supported.

The panel also has oversight of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will be responsible for licensing and regulating the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

Reid has said he would like to hold hearings on waste transportation plans.

The practical effect of the subcommittee reorganization is small, Reid aides said. Reid won't be the top Democrat overseeing nuclear issues, but he works well with Lieberman and intends to work closely with the Connecticut lawmaker to hold hearings and keep a close eye on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Reid called Lieberman a "good friend and ally in our fight to stop Yucca Mountain."

"I will continue fighting just as hard as I ever have to stop the Yucca Mountain project from moving forward," Reid said in a written statement today.