Yucca budget work part of ‘lame duck’ session

Suzanne Struglinski

Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004 | 9:40 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers are expected to work on a budget for the Yucca Mountain project now that they have returned to pick up business left unfinished the election.

There are also several other Southern Nevada-specific matters hanging in the balance as Congress heads into the "lame duck" session, which serves as the final attempt to get bills through Congress because everything starts over when the new session convenes in January.

The Energy Departments wants $880 million for Yucca Mountain, but so far Congress has left it about $749 million short of that request, pleasing Nevadans and other critics of the project, but frustrating the nuclear industry and project supporters.

Congress will try to figure out how to make up the difference between the $131 million the House passed for the Yucca project and the $880 million request. The department has said it could not keep the project on schedule at that amount.

One option would be to extend a continuing resolution for the project, which would keep it at the $577 million it received in fiscal year 2004, but the Energy Department has not said whether that would work or what amount of money it would be comfortable with under the $880 million.

It is unclear when a final decision on the budget will be made and lawmakers have not set a specific date on when the lame-duck session will end.

Beyond the budget for the proposed nuclear waste storage project at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, lawmakers have to finish up eight other spending bills, laws to implement recommendations from the 9/11 Commission and need to handle numerous other items, including nominations.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has been holding up all non-military and non-judicial nominees until his staff member Greg Jaczko, gets approved for his seat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The White House officially nominated Jaczko for the position in February as part of a deal Reid made to allow Environmental Protection Agency head Mike Leavitt to be approved. But the Senate Environment and Public Works committee has not conducted a hearing yet for Jaczko and Reid said he will block other nominees until it does.

The nuclear industry opposes Jaczko's nomination because of his work with Reid against the Yucca project. The Nuclear Energy Institute has said it would support any nominee who could impartially evaluate what comes to the commission. The Commission will ultimately decide whether to license the site.

This week also marks the last chance for several Nevada public lands bills.

The House and Senate have passed the Lincoln County Lands bill, but the Senate passed a different version than the House, so it still has to go through the House one more time before it can go to the President.

The bill is scheduled to be taken up Wednesday, according to the legislative schedule.

The biggest difference between the two versions is how money from federal land sales would be distributed when land in Lincoln County is sold.

Under the House version, 50 percent of the money would go to the Bureau of Land Management for Nevada projects, 45 percent would go to Lincoln County and the remaining 5 percent would be deposited in a state education fund.

The Senate version would give the BLM 85 percent and Lincoln County only 10 percent, but it would also allow Lincoln County to tap into money from federal land sales in Clark County.

The Senate bill also would allow the Southern Nevada Water Authority to obtain land for a 299-mile water pipeline corridor between Lincoln and Clark counties. The House version created a 256-mile and 192-mile pipeline corridor for the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Lincoln County Water District respectively.

Meanwhile, efforts to help make Southern Nevada's new heliport site selection easier and get the ball rolling on the new veterans hospital for the Las Vegas Valley will be a little harder to get through, mainly due to time.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi and Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced in late September that the new government owned health facilities for veterans in southern Nevada would be at Pecos Road and the Las Vegas Beltway in North Las Vegas, but Congress needs to approve the transfer of the 155-acre site from the Bureau of Land Management to the Veterans Affairs Department.

The delegation introduced bills in the House and Senate to make the transfer as the selection of the site became final, but Congress went on recess shortly afterward so there has been no action on those transfer bills. A bill usually needs to be addressed and approved by an appropriate committee before going to a full House vote, but in these wrap-up session, a lot of smaller items can get included in big bills.

"It's the kitchen sink approach," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., spokesman David Cherry.

Larger bills can contain a lot of good but also bad items, so Berkley and the other lawmakers have to decide where the tipping point is and what to fight to include in large bills, Cherry said.

The heliport bill would give Clark County 229 acres of federal land south of Interstate 15 at Sloan to replace the 45-acre go-kart racing site the county purchased and had deemed its best option so far. If the county could not use it, the land would go back to the Bureau of Land Management

Reid suggested in September that the Sunrise landfill site be added to the bill as another option to study for the new heliport, but it has not been added.

The House Resources Committee passed the bill in early October, but it has not been approved by the full chamber yet. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on the bill in September, but has not voted on it yet.

If the heliport bill and veterans land bill do not pass this Congress, it is safe to say they would be introduced after the new Congress opens in January, Cherry said.