Thomas Daschle: “The letter says, ``The Administration cannot support this bill, and the President would veto it if the bill were…”

“The letter says, ``The Administration cannot support this bill, and the President would veto it if the bill were presented to him in its present form.'' He goes on to say, ``According to a recent report from the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, an independent board established by Congress, there is no technical or safety reason to move spent fuel to an interim central storage facility for the next several years.'' The President also notes, ``The bill weakens existing environmental standards by preempting all the Federal, state, and local laws and applying only the environmental requirements of this bill and the Atomic Energy Act.'' He summarizes the letter by saying, ``I hope you will not support S. 1936. It is an unfair, unneeded and unworkable bill.'' I do not know how you can say it any better than that. I think we can do better than this. We ought not be rushing to judgment. We ought to be applying the same standards. We ought to realize there are very serious consequences associated with the decisions some would have us make. So I hope that cooler heads will prevail, that we recognize the importance of this decision and that we let the process work its will. That is not too much to ask to make the right decision. The President believes that, the Washington Post believes that, and I hope that most of the Senate believes it too.”