House panel turns back effort to fund Yucca Mountain licensing

WASHINGTON — A House committee on Wednesday shot down a second attempt to add federal funding to reopen licensing hearings on the Department of Energy’s application to build a permanent nuclear waste repository at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.

The House Rules Committee voted 7-4 to reject the funding request by Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., a staunch advocate of nuclear waste storage at the Nye County site, which was designated by Congress in 1987 as a location suited for permanent storage of radioactive materials from power plants.

“I want to thank Democrats on the House Rules Committee for standing with Nevadans and voting against yet another attempt to force the nation’s nuclear waste into Nevada,” said Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev.

Shimkus and four other lawmakers sought to attach the funding request to a spending bill for fiscal 2020, which begins Oct. 1, for Education, Labor, Health and Human Services and other agencies.

Yucca Mountain licensing money was taken out of a spending bill for Energy earlier this year.

The Senate has yet to craft its version of a spending bill for the Energy Department.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.