[House Report 106-886]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
106th Congress Report
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
2d Session 106-886
======================================================================
DATE EXTENSIONS
_______
September 25, 2000.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on
the State of the Union and ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Bliley, from the Committee on Commerce, submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany H.R. 2641]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Commerce, to whom was referred the bill
(H.R. 2641) to make technical corrections to title X of the
Energy Policy Act of 1992, having considered the same, report
favorably thereon with amendments and recommend that the bill
as amended do pass.
CONTENTS
Page
Amendment........................................................ 1
Purpose and Summary.............................................. 2
Background and Need for Legislation.............................. 2
Hearings......................................................... 5
Committee Consideration.......................................... 5
Committee Votes.................................................. 5
Committee Oversight Findings..................................... 5
Committee on Government Reform Oversight Findings................ 5
New Budget Authority, Entitlement Authority, and Tax Expenditures 5
Committee Cost Estimate.......................................... 6
Congressional Budget Office Estimate............................. 6
Federal Mandates Statement....................................... 7
Advisory Committee Statement..................................... 7
Constitutional Authority Statement............................... 7
Applicability to Legislative Branch.............................. 7
Section-by-Section Analysis of the Legislation................... 7
Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............ 7
Amendment
The amendments are as follows:
Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the
following:
SECTION 1. DATE EXTENSIONS.
Section 1001 of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (42 U.S.C. 2296a) is
amended--
(1) in subsection (b)(1)(B)(i), by striking ``2002'' and
inserting ``2007'';
(2) in subsection (b)(1)(B)(ii), by striking ``placed in
escrow not later than December 31, 2002,'' and inserting
``incurred by a licensee after December 31, 2007,''; and
(3) in subsection (b)(2)(E)(i) by striking ``July 31, 2005''
and inserting ``December 31, 2008''.
Amend the title so as to read:
A bill to make date extensions.
Purpose and Summary
The purpose of H.R. 2641 is to amend title X of the Energy
Policy Act of 1992, as amended (P.L. 102-486, 42 U.S.C.
Sec. 2296a) to extend for another five years the program of
annual reimbursements from the Department of Energy (DOE) to
the private sector licensees cleaning up uranium and thorium
mill tailings sites under the authority of title II of the
Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-
604, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 7901 et seq.). The measure also revises the
date when the Secretary of Energy determines whether there are
any excess funds in the program, and eliminates the requirement
for DOE to place in escrow funds to cover estimated post-2002
cleanup costs.
Background and Need for Legislation
Uranium and thorium mining and milling operations were
initiated in the early 1940s to support the Manhattan Project
to develop the nation's first nuclear weapons. More recent
mining and millings operations were conducted to meet the needs
of the Atomic Energy Commission and subsequent national defense
and commercial nuclear power purposes. Uranium mill tailings
are the sand-like waste product of the milling process. Mill
tailings generally emit very low levels of radioactivity, but
the tailings piles also contain various heavy metals that can
be a source of groundwater contamination. The primary
radioactive contaminant is radium, which emits radon gas.
In 1978, Congress passed the Uranium Mill Tailings
Radiation Control Act of 1978 (P.L. 95-604, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 7901
et seq.; UMTRCA). UMTRCA established two categories of mill
tailings sites. Title I of UMTRCA deals with 22 designated
inactive uranium processing sites, for which DOE was assigned
the primary responsibility for cleaning up tailings. The costs
of cleaning up title I sites are shared 90 percent by the
Federal government and 10 percent by the affected State. Title
II of UMTRCA deals with the processing sites that still held
active licenses in 1978, when UMTRCA became law. The
responsibility for cleaning up these title II active sites was
assigned to the private licensees operating these milling
sites. There was no provision in the original UMTRCA for
Federal assistance for the active sites where uranium
processing was conducted for the Federal government and where
commingled tailings were generated.
Thorium production generated a much smaller volume of waste
material, and occurred at only one site--the West Chicago mill
operated by the Kerr-McGee Corporation. Like uranium, thorium
was also produced for both government and commercial purposes,
and the wastes at the West Chicago site are commingled.
Subsequent to the enactment of UMTRCA, the General
Accounting Office (GAO) recommended that the Federal government
should provide financial assistance for the cleanup of the
active title II processing sites because a portion of the
tailings at these sites were generated for government purposes.
Title X of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, as amended (P.L. 102-
486, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2296a), established a reimbursement program
in which the DOE pays the Federal government's share of cleanup
costs to the licensees operating processing sites which were
active in 1978. DOE determined there were 13 active uranium
sites (located in six States: Colorado, New Mexico, South
Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) and one active thorium
site (in Illinois) that qualify for title X reimbursement.
The 1992 Act specified a limit of $5.50 per dry short ton
of tailings for uranium cleanup. This limit is adjusted for
inflation. TheFederal share at the uranium sites ranges from
11.5 percent to 81.3 percent, with the total federal reimbursement to
all uranium licensees at the active sites limited to $270 million.
Reimbursement for thorium cleanup was not limited on a per ton basis,
but the total reimbursement for the single thorium licensee was limited
to $40 million, with the restriction that the government share can be
used only for offsite disposal. The government's share for the single
thorium processing site is 55.2 percent.
When title X of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 was enacted,
it was envisioned that cleanup of most of the title X sites
would be completed by the year 2002. Therefore, a program was
established to provide for reimbursement on an annual basis for
cleanup costs actually incurred through the end of 2002. If
there is any cleanup work remaining after 2002, the licensees
are required to prepare plans for post-2002 remediation work.
DOE is to review and approve those remediation plans and then
place in escrow sufficient funds to cover estimated post-2002
cleanup costs in accordance with these approved remediation
plans. Under title X, the Secretary is required to determine as
of July 31, 2005, if any excess funds remain within the
authorized program ceiling for uranium licensees. If the actual
costs of cleanup exceed the $5.50 per dry short ton cap, the
Secretary may reimburse such excess costs up to the authorized
program ceiling. This discretionary distribution of excess
funds is available only for the uranium licensees.
In 1996, Congress amended title X of UMTRCA (P.L. 104-259,
42 U.S.C. Sec. 2296a) by increasing the cap for uranium
reimbursement from $5.50 per ton to $6.25 per ton, and
increasing the uranium program ceiling from $270 million to
$350 million. Also, the cap for thorium reimbursement was
raised from a total of $40 million to $65 million. In 1998,
Congress again amended title X again (P.L. 105-388, 42 U.S.C.
2296a), increasing the ceiling for reimbursement to the thorium
licensee from $65 million to $140 million.
The actual cleanup of these uranium and thorium processing
sites is proving to be more costly and time consuming than
originally envisioned in title X. As of April 2000, only two of
the original 14 sites qualifying for title X reimbursement have
been completed (i.e., the TVA site at Edgewater, South Dakota,
and the ARCO Bluewater site at Grants, New Mexico). Significant
work at a majority of sites will continue after 2002. One of
the primary factors driving these increases is the need for
extensive groundwater remediation at several of the processing
sites.
Under current law, the program of annual reimbursement will
come to an end in 2002. Prior to the end of 2002, licensees
will have to prepare remediation plans for post-2002 work, DOE
will have to review and approve those plans, and then DOE will
have to place sufficient funds in escrow to cover post-2002
cleanup costs. With significant cleanup work still ongoing at
several sites, industry and DOE agree that the program of
annual reimbursements should be extended for five more years,
that the date for determination of any program excess should be
adjusted accordingly, and that the current requirements for
post-2002 cleanup plans, DOE review of those plans, and
placement in escrow of estimated post-2002 cleanup funds should
be eliminated. Additionally, industry argues that the per ton
cap on uranium cleanup should be revised upward to reflect
realistic cleanup costs, that the distribution of excess funds
at the end of the program should be mandatory rather than at
the Secretary's discretion, and that this distribution should
include both the uranium and thorium licensees if their actual
cleanup costs exceed either the per ton caps (for uranium
licensees) or the program ceilings (for both uranium and
thorium licensees). DOE is not supportive of the proposed
change to the per ton cap for uranium, of eliminating the
Secretary's discretion regarding distribution of excess funds
at the end of the program, nor of changing the potential
beneficiaries of such distribution.
As introduced, H.R. 2641 makes a number of changes to title
X. It extends the original termination date for annual
reimbursement payments by another five years, from December 31,
2002, to December 31, 2007. H.R. 2641 changes the date on which
the Secretary determines whether any excess funds are available
from July 31, 2005, to December 31, 2008. H.R. 2641 eliminates
the requirement for the Secretary of Energy to place funds in
escrow to cover estimated post-2002 cleanup costs. As
introduced, H.R. 2641 would also replace the current cap for
uranium reimbursement of $6.25 per dry short ton with a sliding
scale, raising to $8.50 per ton in 2002, $9.50 per ton in 2004,
and $10.00 per ton in 2005. Also, H.R. 2641 as introduced
changes the limitations that apply to distribution of any
excess funds by allowing the excess to be disbursed to all
licensees, including the one thorium site, and by eliminating
the Secretary'sdiscretion on whether or not to reimburse these
excess funds to the uranium and thorium licensees.
In testimony at the April 5, 2000, hearing of the
Subcommittee on Energy and Power, DOE was supportive of the
date extensions contained in H.R. 2641 and of eliminating the
escrow requirement, but not supportive of raising the per ton
caps for uranium or of removing the Secretary's discretion on
how to spend any excess funds at the end of the program. In
addition, several Subcommittee Members raised concerns that
additional money spent on uranium and thorium cleanup might
divert funding from the cleanup of the gaseous diffusion plants
at Portsmouth and Paducah.
In response to these concerns, the Committee adopted an
amendment which retained the date extensions in the introduced
version of H.R. 2641, to extend the program of annual
reimbursements by five more years, from December 31, 2002, to
December 31, 2007. It also extends the date for determination
of any excess funds would be extended from July 31, 2005 to
December 31, 2008. The existing requirement for DOE to place
funds in escrow to cover post-2002 cleanup costs is eliminated.
The Committee amendment makes no changes to the existing
program caps for uranium and thorium cleanup, no change to the
existing per ton caps for uranium cleanup, and no change to how
excess funds may be distributed. The General Counsel of the
Department of Energy wrote a letter dated July 25, 2000, in
support of the Committee's amendment.
Hearings
The Subcommittee on Energy and Power held a hearing on H.R.
2641 on April 5, 2000. The Subcommittee received testimony
from: Mr. James Fiore of the Department of Energy, Mr. Tom
McDaniel of the Kerr-McGee Corporation, and Mr. Pat Morgan
representing the Umetco Minerals Corporation.
Committee Consideration
On September 14, 2000, the Subcommittee on Energy and Power
was discharged from the further consideration of H.R. 2641. On
September 14, 2000, the Full Committee met in open markup
session and approved H.R. 2641 for Full Committee
consideration, as amended, by a voice vote.
Committee Votes
Clause 3(b) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of
Representatives requires the Committee to list the record votes
on the motion to report legislation and amendments thereto.
There were no record votes taken in connection with ordering
H.R. 2641 reported. A motion by Mr. Bliley to order H.R. 2641
reported to the House, with an amendment, was agreed to by a
voice vote.
The following amendment was agreed to by a voice vote: An
amendment in the nature of a substitute by Mr. Largent, No. 1,
to extend the dates of the uranium and thorium mill tailings
cleanup program under title X of the Energy Policy Act of 1992.
Committee Oversight Findings
Pursuant to clause 3(c)(1) of rule XIII of the Rules of the
House of Representatives, the Committee held a legislative
hearing and made findings that are reflected in this report.
Committee on Government Reform Oversight Findings
Pursuant to clause 3(c)(4) of rule XIII of the Rules of the
House of Representatives, no oversight findings have been
submitted to the Committee by the Committee on Government
Reform.
New Budget Authority, Entitlement Authority, and Tax Expenditures
In compliance with clause 3(c)(2) of rule XIII of the Rules
of the House of Representatives, the Committee finds that H.R.
2641, a bill to make technical corrections to title X of the
Energy Policy Act of 1992, would result in no new or increased
budget authority, entitlement authority, or tax expenditures or
revenues.
Committee Cost Estimate
The Committee adopts as its own the cost estimate prepared
by the Director of the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to
section 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
Congressional Budget Office Estimate
Pursuant to clause 3(c)(3) of Rule XIII of the Rules of the
House of Representatives, the following is the cost estimate
provided by the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to section
402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974:
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, September 18, 2000.
Hon. Tom Bliley,
Chairman, Committee on Commerce,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 2641, a bill to
made date extensions.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Lisa Cash
Dirskill.
Sincerely,
Barry B. Anderson
(For Dan L. Crippen, Director).
Enclosure.
H.R. 2641--A bill to make date extensions
H.R. 2641 would amend the Energy Policy Act by extending
the authorization for federal reimbursement of certain
remediation costs incurred by private operators of active
uranium and thorium processing sites. The amount of
reimbursement is tied to the amount of byproduct material at
each site attributable to the sale of nuclear materials to the
federal government. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 2641 would
have no significant effect on the federal budget. The bill
contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as
defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would impose no
costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
Under current law, private operators can only be reimbursed
for eligible costs incurred or approved by December 31, 2002.
H.R. 2641 would extend that date to December 31, 2007. Current
law also requires that the sum of costs for work approved to be
undertaken after December 31, 2002, be appropriated into an
escrow account by that date, for later disbursement as
reimbursement claims are made. The bill would repeal the
requirement for an escrow account, instead requiring only that
costs eligible for reimbursement and expected to be incurred
after December 31, 2007, be approved by the Department of
Energy (DOE) prior to that date.
Reimbursements made to date total $302 million, including
$72 million appropriated in fiscal year 2000. Based on
information from DOE, CBO estimates that remediation work
eligible for reimbursement will occur through 2016 and will
require additional spending of between $87 million and $115
million. Because the bill would not affect the timing of any
remediation work or the spending of amounts to reimburse that
work. CBO estimates that the bill would have no significant
additional effect on the federal budget. H.R. 2461 would not
affect direct spending or receipts; therefore, pay-as-you-go
procedures would not apply.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Lisa Cash
Driskill. This estimate was approved by Peter H. Fontaine,
Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
Federal Mandates Statement
The Committee adopts as its own the estimate of Federal
mandates prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget
Office pursuant to section 423 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform
Act.
Advisory Committee Statement
No advisory committees within the meaning of section 5(b)
of the Federal Advisory Committee Act were created by this
legislation.
Constitutional Authority Statement
Pursuant to clause 3(d)(1) of rule XIII of the Rules of the
House of Representatives, the Committee finds that the
Constitutional authority for this legislation is provided in
Article I, section 8, clause 3, which grants Congress the power
to regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the several
States, and with the Indian tribes.
Applicability to Legislative Branch
The Committee finds that the legislation does not relate to
the terms and conditions of employment or access to public
services or accommodations within the meaning of section
102(b)(3) of the Congressional Accountability Act.
Section-by-Section Analysis of the Legislation
The legislation consists of only one section, which makes
changes to section 1001 of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, as
amended. Under the bill, the program of annual reimbursements
will be extended five more years, from December 31, 2002, to
December 31, 2007. Also, the date on which the Secretary of
Energy must make a determination of any excess funds will be
extended from July 31, 2005 to December 31, 2008. The existing
requirement for DOE to place funds in escrow to cover post-2002
cleanup costs is eliminated. DOE will reimburse cleanup costs
on an annual basis through the end of 2007. If there are still
any licensees at that time with post-2007 cleanup costs, those
licensees will have to submit remediation plans for post-2007
work. Upon DOE review and approval of those remediation plans,
if any, DOE will pay the post-2007 costs directly without the
need for escrow. Any funds remaining at the end of 2008 may
then be distributed to the uranium licensees, at the
Secretary's discretion as under existing law.
Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported
In compliance with clause 3(e) of rule XIII of the Rules of
the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by
the bill, as reported, are shown as follows (existing law
proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black brackets, new
matter is printed in italic, existing law in which no change is
proposed is shown in roman):
SECTION 1001 OF THE ENERGY POLICY ACT OF 1992
SEC. 1001. REMEDIAL ACTION PROGRAM.
(a) * * *
(b) Reimbursement.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Energy shall,
subject to paragraph (2), reimburse at least annually a
licensee described in subsection (a) for such portion
of the costs described in such subsection as are--
(A) * * *
(B) either--
(i) incurred by such licensee not
later than December 31, [2002] 2007; or
(ii) [placed in escrow not later than
December 31, 2002,] incurred by a
licensee after December 31, 2007, in
accordance with a plan for subsequent
decontamination, decommissioning,
reclamation, and other remedial action
approved by the Secretary.
(2) Amount.--
(A) * * *
* * * * * * *
(E) Additional reimbursement.--
(i) Determination of excess.--The
Secretary shall determine as of [July
31, 2005] December 31, 2008, whether
the amount authorized to be
appropriated pursuant to section 1003,
when considered with the $5.50 per dry
short ton limit on reimbursement,
exceeds the amount reimbursable to the
licensees under subsection (b)(2).
* * * * * * *