House Passes Fusion, High Energy, and Nuclear Physics Bill
Last Friday afternoon, the House passed by voice vote H.R. 4908, the Hydrogen, Fusion, and High Energy and Nuclear Physics Research Act of 1994. The House considered this bill for about three hours, accepting four relatively minor amendments. The expected amendment to cap overall spending in the bill was not offered by Rep. Bob Walker (R-PA). He did, however, in reaction to what he called a “wave of this [lobbying] going on,” offer what he described as an “antilobbying amendment” which was rejected by the House.
Threading its way through the afternoon’s consideration of the bill was the matter of spending caps on DOE programs (see FYIs #123, 126.) House science committee chairman George Brown (D-CA) said, “In neither subcommittee was there any enthusiasm for the caps, but they were adopted nevertheless in the one subcommittee.... While we were considering some amendments to extend the caps to the whole bill or to remove the caps from the whole bill, I think our current situation is that we will leave the bill the way it was reported out of the committee and hope that we can survive on that basis.” This was one of the few direct references to a reason for the Walker amendment not being offered. Indications of off-the-floor strategy were raised by Brown’s discussion of an amendment to “remove the caps from the whole bill.” Walker defended his effort as “insuring the prioritization of programs along the lines of the [science] committee.” Walker declined to offer his amendment, the result being that the cap on Energy Supply R&D Activities (which includes fusion research) remains, while other General Science and Research Activities spending is not capped.
A focus of the afternoon’s discussion was the need for the federal government to provide “a higher level of policy guidance and program direction” to correct what Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) called “indifference toward the stewardship of these programs.” Members praised developments in the area, Rep. Herbert Klein (D-NJ) saying, “The successful Princeton experiments are a good example of a milestone that DOE and the fusion program promised American taxpayers and then delivered on. The Princeton fusion project is not only doing what it promised to do, but it will complete its program with less funding than was projected when it started operations.”
This bill faces an uncertain future. Although the Senate passed a fusion bill (S. 646), H.R. 4908 is considerably different since it also authorizes hydrogen, high energy, and nuclear physics research. Whether this bill will go to a conference co-chaired by Senator J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA) and then be again passed by both the House and Senate this year is difficult to predict, much less what the legislation’s final provisions might be. Any bill not passed before Congress adjourns this fall will die, and will have to be reintroduced in the 104th Congress.
Future FYIs will summarize H.R. 4908 and its accompanying report, floor debate, and the lobbying amendment.
