Jeff Bingaman: “No. Mr. President, let me respond that under the act as it now stands, as I understand it, the act does not apply to…”

“No. Mr. President, let me respond that under the act as it now stands, as I understand it, the act does not apply to independent regulatory agencies. They are exempted from the unfunded mandates act. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is such an independent regulatory agency and, therefore, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can impose obligations on a tribe, on a local government, on a State, by regulation, and the cost of that can exceed $50 million, or whatever figure it has to exceed. What we are doing, though, in the legislation as it now stands, is we are saying although the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is vested with authority to impose those kinds of obligations, we are denying ourselves that authority. We in the Congress are denying ourselves that authority, and that strikes me as totally illogical. It strikes me that if we are going to have that authority vested in the Federal Government, clearly Congress should retain its ability to deal with this in a responsible way.”