Tag: House
Nuclear Waste Bill Gains Traction in the House
The post Nuclear Waste Bill Gains Traction in the House appeared first on POWER Magazine.
A bill to amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982 and give the Department of Energy (DOE) the authority to site, build, and operate one or more interim storage sites that would consolidate spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from decommissioned nuclear reactors has passed out of committee and been reported to the full House of Representatives.
The full U.S. Energy and Commerce Committee amended the May 2019-introduced “Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019” (H.R. 2699) by voice vote on Nov. 20. The committee received it from the subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change on Sept. 26. It now goes to the full House, where its future is uncertain. However, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr.—a Democrat from New Jersey—was hopeful that it would move the nation closer to a “real national solution for moving spent fuel to an interim facility and, ultimately, to a permanent repository.”…
House Appropriators Approve EPA Funding Bill with Deep Cuts
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is facing a $ 528 million cut to its funding under the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill reported out of committee July 18. While Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee expressed disappointment in the deep cut, it could have been worse.
The Trump administration’s budget request, released in late May, proposed EPA funding of $ 5.655, a cut of $ 2.345 billion. In contrast, the House bill would fund EPA at $ 7.5 billion, a level Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) says “will ensure that the agency is able to fulfill its core duties while streamlining the agency and reshaping its workforce.”
Dems Sneer at Funding Cuts
The other side of the aisle had a very different take on the EPA funding level in the bill, saying that $ 7.5 billion in funding is not only inadequate, it is all but certain to tank the bill entirely. “It is outrageous to think that Republicans would threaten another government shutdown rather than work with Democrats to enact government funding bills even though they know any legislation will require Democratic votes to become law,” Committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.)…