So far this week, 16 more lawmakers have signed on to co-sponsor a bill that would smooth the way to open Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear waste repository.
That makes a total of 78 for Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 (H.R.3053): a 45-page bill officially introduced in the House in June after a very public test screening in April before the the House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee.
The full committee approved the bill later in June by a strongly bipartisan 49-4 vote, setting the stage for an eventual floor vote.
All but one of the co-sponsors announced this week are Republicans. Overall, 13 House Democrats support the bill.
Broadly, Shimkus’ bill would speed the transfer of responsibility for the federally owned Yucca site to the Energy Department from the Interior Department, and clarify that the 147,000-acre site will be used, with a few exceptions, only for nuclear waste disposal.
The first draft of the bill would have allowed DOE to use Nevada’s groundwater at Yucca, and made the federal government solely responsible for granting any air-quality permits needed for building the repository. However, a Shimkus amendment approved by the committee stripped out those provisions.
Since Congress returned from its summer break after Labor Day, rumors have abounded in Washington that Shimkus’ bill could be headed to the House floor for a vote in early October.
“We’re working to move the bill to the floor as soon as possible,” a Shimkus aide said Thursday.
Before it gets there, the Congressional Budget Office must score the bill — estimate what it would cost the government if signed into law — and the House Rules Committee must set the rules for floor debate. Neither of those things had happened by Wednesday.
Also, House leadership referred the bill to House Committee on Natural Resources subcommittee on water, power, and oceans and the Committee on Natural Resources subcommittee on federal lands. Neither had held a hearing on the proposal as of Thursday. In the House, any committee whose jurisdiction touches on a bill’s subject matter gets a chance to weigh in. The Senate typically refers bills only to one committee for consideration.
Editor’s note, Sept. 29, 12:26 p.m. Eastern: the story was corrected say the bill would no longer expand the federal government’s power over water use and air-quality permitting at Yucca.
Editor’s note, Sept. 29, 12:26 a.m. Eastern: the story was corrected to say the first public hearing about the bill took place in April in the House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee.
