AMENDMENT STRIPPING USEC FUNDING IN HOUSE BILL PASSES BY VOICE VOTE

By ExchangeMonitor

An amendment striking the $100 million in funding provided in the Fiscal Year 2013 House Energy and Water Appropriations bill for a Department of Energy program supporting uranium enrichment technology passed in the House by voice vote yesterday. However, it is still unclear whether the provision will be adopted—appropriators have requested a recorded vote, which has not yet been taken. The cut targets a DOE research, development and deployment program aimed at supporting commercialization of USEC’s American Centrifuge Project. The amendment was offered by longtime nuclear critic Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Tea Party caucus member Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), who in a letter to members yesterday called on them to “end the taxpayer bailout of this failing company.”

The program drew a strong defense from House Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner (R-Ohio), whose Ohio district is near the USEC plant site. The amendment would “seriously undermine our national security by striking $100 million for domestic uranium enrichment technology development,” Turner said. He cited the need for a source of enriched uranium using domestic technology that could be used to produce tritium, a principle argument of the Department and National Nuclear Security Administration. Yesterday’s developments come after a heated campaign against USEC funding last month by Markey and Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.), whose amendment to strike $150 million in funding in House Defense Authorization legislation was defeated 121 to 300.

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