Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005 | 7:59 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Every January, Capitol Hill explodes with good intentions. Lawmakers set lofty goals, bills are introduced -- more than 6,000 of them in 2005.
Most die a quiet death. Like Chicago Cubs fans, lawmakers are left to muse, "Maybe next year."
So it was with a number of Nevada issues this year. Others were resolved. Here's a look back, and forward to next year, at the bigger issues:
VA Hospital
Congress this year approved spending $199 million to cover much of the cost of building a veterans medical complex in North Las Vegas.
The complex at Pecos Road and the Las Vegas Beltway is to include an outpatient clinic, 90 hospital beds and 120 nursing home beds. The opening will be delayed, however, from the original 2009 date, possibly as long as two years.
The total price also is expected to rise to $305 million, about $40 million higher than the original estimates, the VA said. "It's being affected by the booming market in Las Vegas and materials and labor rates," said spokeswoman Karen Fedele.
Yucca E-mail Scandal
Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., plans to re-energize an investigation into an e-mail controversy roiling the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository program.
Porter said he will hold another hearing of the government reform subcommittee, which he chairs, late next month, after the General Accountability Office releases a follow-up report on the issue.
Nevada lawmakers say a batch of e-mails by Yucca Mountain workers suggest that quality assurance documents had been falsified. But Energy Department officials say the e-mails are not conclusive.
Expect the e-mail hullabaloo to survive as long as Nevada officials fight the repository (two decades and counting). It likely won't slow the program, but other problems could, including a 22 percent budget cut expected to trim the Yucca Mountain workforce next year. Even better for Nevada opponents of the dump site are rumblings that Congress will adopt a new strategy for solving the nation's nuclear waste woes.
Waste Storage Bill
Sens. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and John Ensign, R-Nev., spent the year collecting support for legislation that could kill Yucca Mountain by requiring power plants to continue to store their own nuclear waste. Utah Republicans Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett have joined them. (Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., has been pushing a similar bill in the House for years.)
The legislation, introduced this month, is a long-shot. But it could become part of a broader discussion in Congress about whether to continue pursuing "geologic" storage for the nation's most radioactive waste -- a hole under Yucca -- or to turn to above-ground temporary storage, or some other alternative.
That debate, though unlikely to directly scuttle Yucca Mountain storage, could play into the state's delay-and-distract strategy. Reid still says the dump will never be built. But many in Congress and the Bush administration will not walk away from an $8 billion investment.
Heliport
Residents of neighborhoods under the flight paths of 33,000 annual Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon helicopter tours, based at McCarran International Airport, say the choppers have hovered like noisy gnats for years.
Congress approved legislation to transfer 229 acres of Bureau of Land Management property near Sloan, roughly 20 miles south of Las Vegas, to Clark County for the new pads.
Studies are now under way on methods of getting water to the site, which is no easy task.
Bush's Nevada Money Grab
President Bush drew the wrath of Nevada lawmakers early this year when he proposed that profits from public land sales be diverted from Nevada to the U.S. Treasury. The proceeds -- well over $2 billion so far -- are generated by auctions of federal land in Clark County. The money stays in Nevada for land, water and school programs. Bush proposed taking 70 percent, but Nevada lawmakers quashed that idea in Congress.
Bush may want a second go-round. The Interior Department reportedly may include the proposal in its budget for fiscal 2007.
Boxing Commission KO'd
Congress went another round in a 10-year effort to reform boxing (bills passed in 1996 and 2000), this time trying to create a three-member federal boxing commission within the Commerce Department. Proponents said it would help restore integrity to the troubled sport, bring some order to varying state rules and better protect fighters. Nevada House lawmakers supported the bill.
But the House shot it down last month. Critics said it amounted to unwarranted government interference.
Splitting the 9th Circuit
Ensign and other conservatives for years have advocated splitting up the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The San Francisco-based court -- the largest of the 11 circuits -- is too big, too back-logged and too liberal, critics say. It handles cases from nine Western states.
Ensign backed a plan to split the 9th Circuit, creating a 12th Circuit Court of Appeals for Nevada, Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.
The bill's Senate opponents blocked the bill this year, but the debate isn't going away.
Ensign's Telecom Reform
Ensign unveiled legislation to address rapid growth and change in the telecommunications industry by deregulating some segments of it.
Consumer groups said the bill could lead to fewer service choices and higher bills. Ensign strongly disagrees, but acknowledged that the bill likely will be redrafted and considered as just one part of a telecom reform debate next year.
Bikinis and Bins
Sometimes a lawmaker will champion obscure but sexy issues.
Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., introduced a bill this year to amend immigration rules to allow more foreign fashion models to work in this country. (The Washington Post's Style section noted that the bill's champion is a 41-year-old bachelor: "What a guy!")
Ensign pushed a bill about airport security checkpoint bins. It directed the Transportation Security Administration to begin testing a new multi-compartment bin, so passengers don't have to dump their shoes, laptops and carry-ons in multiple bins. Ensign figured fewer bins could save screeners time viewing and stacking them.
Hunting and Fishing
Nevada can freely give preference to Nevadans when it issues hunting and fishing licenses, thanks to legislation by Nevada lawmakers. Legislation approved this year clarifies federal law so that the state is now protected to continue giving preference to in-state residents.
Nevada granted 18,800 tags for big game hunting this year, 89 percent of them going to residents.
Terrorism Insurance
Casinos and developers in Nevada nervously eyed the calendar this month until lawmakers approved a two-year extension of federal terrorism insurance, which was to expire Dec. 31. The legislation, enacted after 9/11, will help cover insurance costs in catastrophic cases.
Sept. 11 made terrorism insurance difficult to obtain. The renewal reduces the burden on taxpayers by boosting insurer deductables.
Benjamin Grove can be reached at (202) 662-7436 or at [email protected]
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