Porter calls for punishment of falsifiers of Yucca work

Thursday, March 31, 2005 | 9:58 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said Wednesday that if federal employees did indeed falsify Yucca Mountain nuclear dump documents they should at least be fired and could also be charged criminally.

"If Congress has been lied to, Congress will take whatever steps are necessary to make sure they are penalized to the fullest extent of the law," Porter told reporters after addressing a joint session of the Legislature.

Any firing would have to be done by the Bush administration, however, he conceded.

In his address, Porter noted that as chairman of a subcommittee that has jurisdiction over all federal agencies, he will ensure that a hearing April 5 in Washington seeks the whole truth regarding the allegedly doctored documents involving water seepage studies at Yucca Mountain.

The inspector generals in the Energy and Interior departments are already investigating the matter, and the FBI also has reportedly become involved.

Porter said his office has secured all of the documents and he will release them Friday in advance of the hearing next Tuesday. He said he expects further revelations will emerge from the documents but he has not had a chance to review them.

"We're going to expose any and all improprieties having to do with the documents that members of Congress have based their decision on," he said. "The scientific data that Congress has used is based on faith and trust in these federal agencies.

"If in fact those documents are falsified and have impacted the science and the delivery of information to the federal court and to members of Congress, we will take action regarding the falsification of documents."

Congress passed a plan to put the nation's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, based on scientific work done by the government. President Bush signed off on the plan, citing "sound science." Critics of the plan say this is proof that the project isn't based on sound science.

In other comments to the Legislature, the second-term congressman from Las Vegas also urged the Legislature to pass all-day kindergarten.

"There is no question we need it," he said.

He said he knew it was a challenge to find the money for the all-day kindergarten, but he added he is looking for federal grants to help the state.

He also told the lawmakers the federal government needs to reduce the unfunded federal mandates on state and local governments. Asked later to name one unfunded federal mandate that has been eliminated, he said there were some, but he could not name them.

He said a committee is looking at 150 unfunded mandates for possible elimination.

Asked about removing the statue of Sen. Patrick McCarran from the Capitol's National Statuary Hall, Porter said.

"That's up to the Nevada Legislature, and if the Legislature thinks it's the right thing to do, we should do it.

"The new revelations of the some of the things of his past put into question whether he should remain a statue in statuary hall, but I have confidence in the Legislature," he said.

A new biography of McCarran paints him as a vindictive racist who was the man behind Sen. Joe McCarthy's red scare witch hunt .