WASHINGTON — The Senate agreed to a firm 2019 deadline for the Energy Department to clean up the Moab uranium mill tailings, in a Defense authorization bill passed late Monday.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, had pushed for the firm deadline after Energy Department officials earlier this year said the cleanup project, which was initially planned to last seven to 10 years, would require 21 years to complete.

"I have said all along it is entirely unacceptable for the cleanup of these tailings to take over 20 years," Bennett said in a statement Tuesday. "I believe it is completely doable and logical to have it completed by 2019, and my amendment requires the secretary of energy to put forward a plan to do just that."

Bennett sits on the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee and has secured nearly $70 million in federal dollars since 2000 for the remediation of the site, according to his office.

He also has requested $29.3 million for the project in the Senate version of the energy and water spending bill, which is waiting for a Senate floor vote. The House approved roughly $24 million for the project.

The Defense authorization bill, a must-pass bill for Congress, gives Congress permission to move ahead with certain projects and dictates how much money can be spent in certain areas. Appropriations measures would then be required to actually put the money toward the project.

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, also inserted a 2019 deadline for the Moab project in the House Defense authorization bill, which passed earlier this year. The deadline language would need to make it through the House and Senate conference that works out differences between the versions of the bill before it would be passed by each chamber again and go to the president to become law.

Also in the Defense authorization bill, the Senate included an amendment by Bennett and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, that requires the Defense Department to complete a report on how the government can maintain the nation's missile supplies, which are now partly built in Utah, including at Hill Air Force Base.

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