Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) is looking to strike $100 million in House funding for a Department of Energy program supporting USEC’s American Centrifuge Project when the matter comes to the House floor. Last week, the House Appropriations Committee reported out the Fiscal Year 2013 Energy and Water spending bill, which provided the funding for a research, development and deployment program for the enrichment plant at $50 million below the Administration’s $150 million request. But Pearce’s district contains the URENCO USA facility, an enrichment plant under construction near Eunice, N.M., which has received no federal funding and would be in competition with the proposed USEC plant. Pearce’s office has reached out to USEC critic Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), as well as Reps. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.) in an effort to gain support for striking funding from the bill. Staff for those lawmakers did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
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