Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
1/31/2014
The markup of the “Nuclear Waste Administration Act” currently under consideration in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has been delayed once again after the sponsors of the bill sent the proposed legislation to the Congressional Budget Office for additional scoring. Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) had expressed a desire to mark the bill up in January, but the recent federal court decision to reduce the Nuclear Waste Fund fee to zero may affect the budgetary analysis of the bill. “The goal was to do it in January,” a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee spokesman said. “Earlier this month, Wyden and the other sponsors of the bill asked CBO to score the legislation, particularly in light of the Waste Fee court decision from last year to find out how that court decision would impact the bill’s scoring if the Waste Fee is no longer in play. They are waiting for an answer from CBO before going ahead with a markup of the bill.” There is no timeline for when the CBO will come back with its analysis so potential future dates for the markup remain unclear.
The Nuclear Waste Administration Act was introduced earlier this year by Wyden along with several other senators. Among its provisions, the bill would create a new independent agency to handle the nation’s high level radioactive waste as well as create a consent-based siting approach for interim storage. Both Wyden and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the ranking member on the Senate Energy committee, co-authored the bill drawing from some of the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.
