Nevada officials lobby against direct funding for Yucca

Suzanne Struglinski

Friday, June 25, 2004 | 9:29 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Rules placed on the Energy and Water spending bill debate taking place in the House today could make it hard for the Yucca Mountain project to get the money it needs.

Supporters of the proposed nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas had sought to make money from a nuclear waste fund available directly to the project, without making it compete with other projects that Congress funds, but the rules will make that tough.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, had said he hoped to add an amendment to the spending bill that would provide $750 million directly to the Yucca Mountain project.

The Nevada House delegation lobbied the House Rules Committee, which can make it easy or difficult for amendments to get consideration, to make sure there was a level playing field during the debate on the spending bill.

Right now the Energy and Water spending bill contains only $131 million for the project, a severe cut from the department's $880 million request. The Energy Department has said at the lower funding, it would have to lay off more than 1,700 Nevada employees and contractors working on the project.

To make up the difference, Congress would have to take the money from other projects or pass a budget policy change to get money directly from the nuclear waste fund, the pool paid into by nuclear ratepayers for the project, without hurting other projects. The House was to vote on the bill later today.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., worked with their parties' leadership in the committee and in the House as a whole, urging them to reject any consideration of making money available directly to the Yucca project.

During spending bill debate, an amendment to make the change could still be offered but the rule on the bill allows for debate and a vote on it, Berkley spokesman David Cherry said. The rule creates a "disincentive" to bring up the amendment, since those who oppose it would challenge it, Cherry said.

Cherry said this came after a daylong plea with the Rules Committee that the change would not only be bad for Nevada but that there are more important priorities for federal funding and this project does not deserve special treatment.

Cherry said though that the rule just "dodges a bullet" and that things can still change.

Gibbons and Porter spoke before the Rules Committee Thursday night. Gibbons said the project does not deserve a blank check, according to spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer. He had sent a letter to committee chairman Rep. David Drier, R-Calf., saying if the committee allowed an amendment that would change the budget rules "we would place not only the budget, but the safety of this nation at risk."

"With every week that goes by and with every dollar spent in an attempt to make the Yucca Mountain waste repository feasible, additional flaws that should render the project unsuitable for licensing are exposed," Gibbons wrote.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., blocked a similar move in the Senate. Ensign sits on the Senate Budget Committee and did not let the change into the Senate budget resolution passed earlier this year.

Reid, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water spending bill, will also work to stop the change during that bill's debate and in conference with the House version.