John Spratt: “earlier I entered into a colloquy with the chairman, and he was good enough to clarify for me some parts of this…”

“earlier I entered into a colloquy with the chairman, and he was good enough to clarify for me some parts of this committee report that are important to me. I would like to further build a context on which my concerns were built. In this committee report accompanying the bill, there is directive language at pages 122 and 123 and 124 that can be taken to amend the explicit terms of existing laws. And the laws at issue, which the report language could be construed to change, of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and possibly even the National Environmental Policy Act, both carefully wrought, are both vitally important. I do not think it is the intention of the committee report to change the laws because I do not think it can but nevertheless it makes some strong recommendations. The committee report laments the latest delays at Yucca Mountain. The start-up date has slipped again, this time from 2010 to 2012. The committee, to its credit, with the chairman's strong support, funds Yucca Mountain at the requested levels, I think we should, $651 million for fiscal year 2006; and I commend you for that and finds this sufficient to do the engineering work, continue the license application, continue the design work. I have an interest in this because I represent four nuclear reactors, and I live in an area where nuclear generation accounts for 50 percent of our electricity.…”