House OKs a study of nuclear sites

The earliest that Yucca Mountain could open is 2012, even though the government was bound by contract with the nuclear power industry to have a site up and running by 1998. Failure to have a permanent storage site put the government at legal risk — a risk that Hobson said could cost taxpayers $1 billion a year.

The House spending bill also contains $4.7 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, most of it devoted to waterways, dams and flood control projects. That is $414 million more than requested by President Bush but $294 million less than current funding.

The House approved less money than the Bush administration had wanted for maintaining the country's nuclear weapons. The White House said the $450 million cut from its request for the nuclear weapons program threatens the ability to ensure the safety and reliability of the nuclear stockpile without underground testing. Lawmakers added the $450 million to the president's $6 billion request for environmental cleanup at heavily polluted sites used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.

The bill calls for spending $62 million for oil and gas research, programs the administration had wanted phased out, arguing that the highly profitable industry already "has the financial incentives and resources" to develop new technologies without taxpayer subsidies.

Separately, a House Appropriations subcommittee approved by voice vote a bill to fully fund Bush's request for NASA, while cutting law enforcement grants to state and local governments and in the State Department's budget. The trade-offs came in a $57.5 billion measure for NASA and the Commerce, Justice and State departments.

The subcommittee's treatment of NASA, approving Bush's full $16.5 billion request, contrasts with last year's budget cycle when a bill containing the agency's funding slashed Bush's request by 7 percent, or more than $1 billion.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, whose district is home to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, refused to bring that bill to the floor and forced negotiators to restore the cuts when assembling a $388 billion catchall spending bill last November.

The measure approved by the subcommittee on Tuesday would cut crime-fighting grants to state and local governments by $400 million from current levels. The panel also would cut $273 million from Bush's request for the State Department but boost FBI spending by 10 percent over this year.