September 27, 2008

Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid today commended the passage of a package of bills that funds the federal government and important Nevada projects, while also cutting millions from the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump.

"I am pleased the Senate passed these important funding bills," said Reid. "By working in a bipartisan fashion, we were able to pass legislation that funds the federal government, delivers millions of dollars to important Nevada projects, and also cuts more than $100 million from the President's budget for Yucca Mountain."

The Continuing Resolution passed today will fund the federal government through March 2009.  Funding for Yucca Mountain was frozen at fiscal year 2008 levels, $386.451 million, a cut of more than $108 million below the President's request level for fiscal year 2009.  The continued resolution only provides funding through March 6, 2009, when Congress will need to revisit the funding for the agency and determine the budget for the rest of the fiscal year.

The Defense Appropriations bill, passed in this package, contains more than $82 million for military and defense projects at Nevada's military bases, universities and in the state's private sector. More than $160 million was included in the Military Construction bill for operations, improvements, and construction of Nevada military facilities. In addition to the above funding for military projects and facilities, Reid secured $102 million in the Homeland Security bill for the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium which includes the Nevada Test Site. The test site will receive $23 million of the funding to continue its vital research of new security measures and operations.

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