[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Page 25942]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            FISCAL YEAR 2006 ENERGY AND WATER APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, although I recognize the important 
programs funded by the fiscal year 2006 Energy and Water appropriations 
conference report, on balance, I could not support the bill. The 
conference report provides $50 million in funding for the Department of 
Energy to develop a plan for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel and to 
select sites suitable for housing reprocessing facilities. This 
provision was not in the Senate version of the bill and thus was not 
debated in the Senate. Because reprocessing raises serious 
environmental, fiscal, and proliferation concerns, this provision 
should have, at the very least, been the subject of an open and 
extensive congressional debate before we simply proceeded down the path 
directed by the report language.
  I am also concerned that the Energy and Water appropriations report 
extends the authorization of funding for the Animas-La Plata project. 
This extension of funding authorization--which does not belong in an 
appropriations bill--is contrary to assurances I received in 2000 when 
the Colorado Ute Indian Water Rights Settlement Act was amended.

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