Jeff Bingaman

Mr. BINGAMAN

Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the pending amendment be set aside so that I can send an amendment to the desk for consideration.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BINGAMAN. I know the Senator from California is here to offer her amendment. Before we set this amendment aside, let me speak briefly about it. It is very important that we pass the McCain amendment once again to make the point to the House of Representatives that this is a priority for our Nation and this is vitally needed legislation. In my State, we lost 12 people as a result of a tragic breach or break in a high-pressure gas pipeline south of Carlsbad, NM. I visited the site. I saw the tremendous damage that was done when that pipeline broke without any warning and essentially killed a great many people who were there camping beside the Pecos River. This is a tragedy that should have been enough to galvanize action in Washington. When you add it to the other tragedy, which has been talked about here several times, in Washington State, it is clear to me this is legislation that should be passed quickly and moved to the President for signature. I very much hope, when we vote tomorrow on the McCain amendment, there will be a resounding vote, as there has been in the past, and that we will finally get the House of Representatives to give attention to this issue and to pass it quickly. As I understand it, at this point it is the desire of the Senator from California to offer an amendment. I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be set aside so that she may offer her amendment.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I think this is a good second-degree amendment. I suggest we go ahead and adopt it at this point, and then, as the Senator from Nevada indicated, have the scheduled vote on the McCain amendment tomorrow. I know Senator Murray from Washington is waiting to speak on the McCain amendment, as is Senator Breaux from Louisiana.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I am informed Senator McCain is ready to offer his amendment. Amendment No. 2979

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I support the amendment. I think this will improve the bill. I urge all Senators to support this amendment.

Mr. BINGAMAN. At this point, I believe Senator Craig has an amendment he wishes to offer that we can agree to and voice vote. Then I have amendments on behalf of Senator Akaka that I would like to handle the same way.

Mr. BINGAMAN. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, this amendment sets up a study process to determine whether hydraulic fracturing should be regulated by the Federal Government under the Safe Drinking Water Act. It is a bipartisan amendment with many cosponsors. It is good policy. It is a policy that was supported by the Clinton administration. It is now supported by the current administration. I yield the remainder of my time to the Senator from Oklahoma.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Rockefeller be listed as a cosponsor of the amendment.

Mr. BINGAMAN. I thank the chair. Vote on Amendment No. 2983

Mr. BINGAMAN. I see Senator Voinovich. That is the Price-Anderson amendment, I believe.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Is that vote to occur immediately or is there time to speak?

Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, what is the regular order?

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the time during the quorum call be counted equally against all the Senators who are controlling time.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I also commend the Senator from Alabama for his effort in this regard. I do think his proposed modification of our amendment makes a good deal of sense, and we were very pleased to accept that. He does have some peculiar problems in Alabama in trying to implement their regulatory program, and I think clearly we want to see that State succeed. That is his objective as well. So I am glad we could accommodate that concern. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I yield another 5 minutes to the Senator.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I send a modification to the desk.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, a cautionary word. We will need to use hydraulic fracturing of gas wells over the next decade. An unneeded regulation of hydraulic fracturing could make some of these wells uneconomical to produce and could defeat our important efforts to increase our energy independence--particularly as it relates to natural gas. My proposed amendment would sensibly allow hydraulic fracturing to assist efforts to increase our energy independence, while studying whether there is any known environmental harm that would require Federal regulation. For this reason, I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment. I yield the floor. Exhibit 1

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. BINGAMAN. I withdraw my request, Mr. President.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, just a couple of other words about the Price-Anderson amendment: First, I thank my colleague from New Mexico for his kind words about provisions that are included in this bill. He has authored many of those provisions, particularly the ones related to nuclear power, and he has been a tireless advocate for peaceful use of nuclear power in this country for many years. We are all well aware of that. We have included in the bill those provisions he suggested which clearly do contemplate and envision continued contributions by the nuclear power industry to our energy needs. That is certainly my purpose and, I know, the purpose of Senator Voinovich as well. We were talking in one of the asides about the fact that the Price-Anderson Act was originally proposed by Representative Price from Illinois, Mel Price, and also by Senator Clinton Anderson from New Mexico. It has served the country well for 45 years, as we have indicated before. We think it is important that it continue to do so. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be set aside, and it be in order for me to send another amendment to the desk for consideration.

Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I commend the Senator for offering this amendment. I am cosponsoring the amendment. Title V of the underlying bill we are debating renews the provisions of the Price- Anderson Act that relate to Department of Energy contractors, but it does not renew those that relate to NRC licensees. The reason is that jurisdiction over the contractor provisions was in the Energy Committee, which was where we were largely developing this bill. The jurisdiction over the NRC licensee provisions is in the Environment Committee that Senator Smith chaired. Some members of the Environment Committee asked us not to include provisions that were under its jurisdiction in this substitute. The pending amendment Senator Voinovich has offered now provides a substitute for the Price- Anderson provisions in the underlying bill. It repeats the provisions that renew DOE contractor portions of Price-Anderson that are already there, and in addition, it adds the new provisions related to the NRC licensee part of the act. Let me give a short summary of what the pending amendment would do. Section 502 of the amendment extends the NRC's indemnification authority for another 10 years. That has been recommended by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and it is part of what Senator Voinovich is proposing. It extends the indemnification authority of the Department of Energy indefinitely. That is also consistent with the 1998 report of the Department of Energy. Section 503 of the amendment raises the liability limit for DOE contractors and hence the amount that DOE indemnifies its contractors up to $10 billion, which would be adjusted in the future for inflation. Under current law, the liability limit for DOE contractors is tied to the maximum liability of Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensees, which is currently at $9 billion. Section 504 increases the liability limits and indemnification for accidents involving government-owned nuclear facilities or devices located outside the United States from the $100 million, where it presently is, to $500 million. This increase also was recommended by the Department of Energy. It is consistent with international nuclear liability standards. Section 505 requires both the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to submit new reports on the need to continue or modify the act in 2008. Section 506 requires the Secretary of Energy to adjust the $10 billion liability limit every 5 years for inflation. This is consistent also with the provision in existing law that requires the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to adjust the limit for Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensees. Section 507 repeals two provisions in current law that exempt nonprofit Department of Energy contractors from civil penalties for nuclear safety violations. Section 507 subjects nonprofit contractors to set civil penalties. It limits the total amount of those penalties to the fee the contractor receives in any year under the contract. Finally, section 508 provides two or more so-called ``modular'' reactors that are located at one site should be treated as a single nuclear powerplant for purposes of assessing premiums under the Price- Anderson Act. This provision has been added to allow for the use of some of the new advanced technology reactor designs that make use of several small reactor modules to do the work of a single large nuclear reactor. The provision will permit the NRC to treat a collection of these modules at a single site as a single reactor for Price-Anderson purposes. In summary, the Price-Anderson Act has served this nation well for 45 years, by enabling utilities to generate 20 percent of our Nation's electricity with nuclear power, universities to conduct important nuclear research, and corporations to build nuclear weapons for our national defense without the threat of unlimited liability. At the same time, the act has ensured that the public will be compensated in the event of a nuclear accident, that adequate funds will be available to pay claims, and that victims will be able to recover through an efficient no-fault liability system, which waives many of the legal obstacles that would confront victims in the absence of the act. The important pending amendment renews this important law with a minimum number of changes, and in ways consistent with the strong recommendations we have received from the two agencies charged with administering it. I urge its adoption.