Committee OKs Reid’s budget cut for Yucca

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, July 17, 2003 | 11:16 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Appropriations Committee today approved the drastically reduced Yucca Mountain budget requested by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The action set the stage for a standoff between House and Senate negotiators over the budget in the coming weeks.

Reid's $425 million request is lower than the $591 million the Energy Department requested for the nuclear waste repository project, and a significant decrease from the House Appropriation Committee's $765 million passed earlier this week. Reid is the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that creates the Yucca budget each year.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., subcommittee chairman, said the low request will be a "major point of contention" as the bill moves through Congress.

"It will be resolved successfully and adequately in conference," Domenici said, referring to the upcoming House and Senate meeting to work out differences between the two bills.

House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee chairman David Hobson, R-Ohio, named Yucca Mountain his top priority for funding last week, after adding more than $170 million to DOE request.

The full House and Senate are expected to vote on the spending bills before the end of the month.

Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said today he aims to get the bill to the conference committee before the month-long August recess, which begins Aug. 4.