No federal dollars will be spent on new DOT attorneys to fight Utah’s challenges against waste
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House-Senate conference on this year’s transportation appropriations bill today agreed to include in the final version Sen. Bob Bennett’s language that will deny funding for two new attorneys to fight Utah’s challenge against the shipment of nuclear waste to Skull Valley.
“I am pleased that the House conferees receded to the Senate language in the final bill and agree that this is not a proper role for the federal government,” said Bennett, a member of the conference committee. “I remain committed to fight against any effort to bring spent nuclear fuel to Utah, and firmly believe that this waste should be stored where it currently is until we work out the economics and technology to reprocess it.”
The House-passed bill included funding for two federal attorneys designated to handle legal challenges arising from proposed shipment of spent nuclear waste to Utah’s Skull Valley on the Goshute Reservation. The funds were designated for the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration which would oversee transportation of the waste.
When the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation met in July to discuss the fiscal year 2006 bill, Bennett, a member of the subcommittee, successfully struck that provision from the Senate version. Additionally, he added language that “denies funding for new positions to administer activities related to shipment of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste to a private interim storage facility.” At that time, he also spoke with Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten to confirm the Bush administration’s support for Utah’s efforts to block the waste from coming to Utah and ensure that it would not work to restore the House language in conference.
Work on the conference report will be completed early next week. After the final votes in the House and Senate, the bill will be sent to the president for his signature.
http://bennett.senate.gov/press/record.cfm?id=248642
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