Energy and water, homeland security bills advance

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday approved a bill to basically freeze spending on energy and water projects next year after pouring tens of billions of dollars into them as part of last winter’s economic stimulus plan.

The 80-17 vote on the compromise House-Senate plan cleared the measure for President Barack Obama’s signature. The bill is just the third of 12 annual spending bills to clear Congress for the 2010 budget year that began Oct. 1.

The popular $33.5 billion measure funds renewable energy research, Army Corps of Engineers water projects, nuclear weapons safety and security and environmental cleanup. That’s more than the $33.3 billion a year earlier and less than the $34.4 billion the White House requested.

Across the Capitol, the House approved by a 307-114 vote a $44.1 billion measure funding the Department of Homeland Security. That bill was also a House-Senate compromise that the Senate is expected to clear for Obama next week.

The homeland security measure also largely continues current law permitting detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay prison to be transferred to the United States to stand trial.

The energy and water bill provides a small increase over current spending. That puts it practically alone among the current set of domestic appropriations bills, most of which would deliver spending increases well in excess of inflation. The relatively small increase was made easier by the more than $40 billion in spending for energy programs and water infrastructure that was delivered in Obama’s February stimulus bill.

The measure cleared after Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., held up action for more than a day. He was protesting a decision by Democrats to kill his provision to require that reports that agencies send to the appropriations panels be made available to all lawmakers and the public.

The measure also fulfills a campaign promise by Obama to close the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility in Nevada, which was 25 years and $13.5 billion in the making.

The Yucca Mountain project has long been opposed by powerful Nevadans such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The $197 million for the program, down $92 million from last year, is primarily for looking into alternatives.

The move would leave the country without a long-term solution for storing highly radioactive waste from nuclear power plants.

Energy efficiency programs covering solar energy, vehicle technology and biofuels are in line for a $314 million boost, to $2.2 billion. Programs to modernize and secure the nation’s electricity grid would get $172 million, an increase of $35 million. Army Corps flood protection and other construction projects would receive $2 billion, $313 million more than the White House sought.

The measure also contains a provision authored by California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to allow for water transfers to help farmers in California’s Central Valley suffering from severe drought conditions.

The provision would facilitate transfer of water from the eastern portion of the valley to the western part of the San Joaquin Valley particularly affected by a multiyear drought.

The homeland security measure provides $800 million to continue building a border fence and take other steps to seal the US-Mexico border. A Senate-adopted provision to require a 700-mile-long double-layered fence along the border was dropped as too costly.

The bill also extends for three years the nation’s E-Verify system — which allows employers to determine the legal status of workers.