Bodman in a bind over ‘broken’ Yucca project

Benjamin Grove

Monday, March 13, 2006 | 7:17 a.m.

WASHINGTON - Watching Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, just 13 months into his job, observers might get the feeling he is already sick of dealing with Yucca Mountain, one of his department's toughest and longest-running challenges.

Bodman last week got in trouble with his own staffers after he told reporters the department had no intention of pursuing a temporary nuclear waste storage site while Yucca is being developed. (It turns out the department may pursue that.)

Then in appearances before congressional panels last week, Bodman had to search for new and different ways to say the troubled proposed nuclear waste repository program had been poorly managed.

He told lawmakers that Yucca was "broken."

He pleaded for more patience from Congress. He said he was trying to implement better management. He said "doubt" had been cast on Yucca's quality assurance program, which is designed to maintain its scientific integrity.

"It has been severely compromised because our contractor didn't do as good a job as a contractor should," Bodman said of Yucca.

He put some blame on the U.S. Geological Services for compromising quality assurance. "And perhaps mostly it has been compromised because we in the Energy Department didn't manage it very well."

Lawmakers on two House committees grilled Bodman on Yucca, including Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., who drew a few chuckles from the audience when he asked Bodman the painfully simple question that Yucca observers have been asking for years: "When do you think Yucca Mountain will be open?"

Bodman said, "That's kind of the $64 question."

Visclosky shot back: "It's about $500 million," a reference to Bodman's Yucca budget request for next year.

Last year more than 6,000 bills were introduced in Congress and only a tiny fraction ever were made law. But those odds don't stop lawmakers, including Nevada's own, from trying to live up to the job title.

Recently introduced: two provisions inserted by Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., into a child safety and crime bill approved last week by the House. One provision allows school districts to submit fingerprints of job candidates to a national database, with the goal of avoiding the hire of criminals.

The other requires stricter penalties - at least 30 years in prison, or life, or even death - for anyone who kills a federally paid public safety officer.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., last week introduced a bill that would allow veterans to hire a lawyer earlier in disputes with the Veterans Affairs Department over benefits. Current law prohibits veterans from seeking counsel until after a sometimes lengthy administrative appeals process.

And Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., introduced a bill that would entitle wounded veterans to a pro-rated share of their retirement benefits

Currently, military service members have to work 20 years for the benefits.

"Some of these veterans have served 10 or 15 years, and had planned to keep serving until retirement," Reid said. "It's not their fault they got injured."

Democratic members of the House Education and Workforce Committee released new numbers last week they say show Bush budget proposals would trim $107 million in federal money from Nevada education programs in the next five years.

In that time, the state stands to lose $53 million for vocational and adult education programs; $31.3 million for special education; and nearly $23 million for school improvement programs under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Lawmakers routinely pepper reporters with press releases, which rarely contain much news. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., set a new standard last week for newslessness when his office issued an alert to the media to announce that he had been praised by someone named Pete Sepp, vice president for communications of the National Taxpayers Union. Sepp thanked Ensign for opposing an asbestos litigation reform bill.

Stop the presses ... "Senator Ensign deserves praise for having the courage to resist pressure from many of his colleagues, and to side instead with taxpayers in this debate," Sepp said.

During his weekly "stakeout" with reporters, Reid last week praised a Washington Post column by Norman Ornstein, who had chronicled how Congress over the years has spent less and less time in session, and typically meeting only Tuesday through Thursday.

Reid agreed: "Thursday now is where Friday used to be. Mondays are out of the picture. We don't do anything on Mondays."