House panel to study bill to reclassify fees

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 | 9:22 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A House subcommitee will evaluate a bill today that could allow the Energy Department to tap into about $750 million a year for the Yucca Mountain project, without going through the usual budgeting process.

Nevada's congressional delegation strongly opposes the bill because it would make it easier for the department to spend money on the project, and they say it would lessen congressional oversight.

The bill would reclassify fees in the nuclear waste fund, an account funded directly by a surcharge on nuclear power to build a federal storage site for nuclear waste, now planned for Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, introduced in the bill February and it has six co-sponsors, all Republicans.

The bill needs to pass out of subcommittee, the full Energy and Commerce Committee and the full House and the Senate before becoming law.

So far, the House spending bill that covers Yucca Mountain only contains $131 million of the department's $880 million request for the project since this funding change has not yet been approved. The House Appropriations Committee expects to pass that bill today.