REP. WAXMAN TAKES ISSUE WITH WIPP PROVISION IN HOUSE BILL

House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is taking issue with a provision that would open the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to non-defense transuranic waste that was included in legislation that passed the House Friday. Waxman believes the provision should have been taken up by Energy and Commerce. “If this effort to circumvent the Committee is successful, a message will be sent to communities throughout the nation that if they enter into a good faith agreement with the federal government to host nuclear waste disposal facilities, Congress may unilaterally change that agreement at any time and without any public hearings or consideration by the committee of jurisdiction,” Waxman wrote yesterday in a letter to Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.). The language was in an amendment drafted by Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) in the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, and was introduced last month by Pearce in a standalone bill. Pearce’s office declined to comment yesterday.