Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, let me very briefly address the Bingaman amendment which I feel introduces some serious loopholes in S . 104's ironclad process toward a safe, central interim storage facility. The loopholes will be used, as they have in the past, to keep the nuclear waste where it is at 80 sites in 41 States, near schools and residential neighborhoods--right where it is today. The history of the nuclear waste issue has taught us some simple lessons we must heed: Any decision regarding nuclear waste that can be delayed will be delayed; any decision that can be ignored will be ignored. That is why we have spent $6 billion over 15 years, and the Federal Government is still unable to meet its legal and moral obligation to take the waste in 1998. I implore my colleagues: Let us not be fooled again. S . 104 is designed to make sure there are no trap doors. The chart that I explained to my colleagues yesterday attempts to make a decision, force a decision now, not leave us with a way out or a copout. I suggest to you that the Bingaman amendment as it is structured opens a loophole. It opens the process to political pressure. It invites indecision. It continues the legacy of failure that the Department of Energy's nuclear waste program is noted for. It would be my intention, Mr. President, to move to table the Bingaman amendment. [Page: S3136] Mr. BINGAMAN addressed the Chair. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico. Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, first, I ask unanimous consent that Anne Marie Murphy, who is a Congressional Fellow on Senator Durbin's staff, be granted privileges of the floor today, April 15. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, the amendment I have offered goes to the heart of a flaw in S . 104 . Without the amendment that I am offering, S . 104 will send nuclear waste to the site right next to Yucca Mountain even if Yucca Mountain fails as the geologic repository. We will then have a permanent aboveground repository rather than a geologic repository and will be able to shuffle off the responsibility for dealing with nuclear waste to our children and grandchildren. There is an attempt in the bill to disguise this unfair policy with a provision that allows the President to send waste somewhere else if we pass a law to that effect within 24 months. But we are not going to pass a new nuclear waste law in 24 months especially if the reward for not doing so is to keep sending all the waste to Nevada where we can forget about it. My amendment stops construction and operation of an interim storage site in Nevada if Yucca Mountain fails as a candidate repository at any time before it opens. If Yucca Mountain is not suitable as a repository, then it is not the right place for interim storage. We must have certainty that our ultimate solution for nuclear waste is based on having a geologic repository and that any action on an interim storage facility rises or falls with the fate of a permanent facility. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired. The question is on agreeing to the amendment. Mr. MURKOWSKI addressed the Chair. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska. Mr. MURKOWSKI. I move to table the Bingaman amendment and ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There is a sufficient second. The yeas and nays were ordered. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion to table the amendment. The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll. The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll. Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Indiana [Mr. Coats] is necessarily absent. Mr. FORD. I announce that the Senator from West Virginia [Mr. Rockefeller] is necessarily absent. The result was announced--yeas, 59, nays, 39, as follows: Rollcall Vote No. 40 Leg. [Rollcall Vote No. 40 Leg.] YEAS--59 Abraham Allard Ashcroft Bennett Bond Brownback Burns Cochran Collins Coverdell Craig D'Amato DeWine Domenici Enzi Faircloth Frist Gorton Graham Gramm Grams Grassley Gregg Hagel Hatch Helms Hollings Hutchinson Hutchison Inhofe Jeffords Johnson Kempthorne Kohl Kyl Leahy Lott Lugar Mack McCain McConnell Moseley-Braun Murkowski Murray Nickles Roberts Roth Santorum Sessions Shelby Smith (NH) Smith (OR) Snowe Specter Stevens Thomas Thompson Thurmond Warner NAYS--39 Akaka Baucus Biden Bingaman Boxer Breaux Bryan Bumpers Byrd Campbell Chafee Cleland Conrad Daschle Dodd Dorgan Durbin Feingold Feinstein Ford Glenn Harkin Inouye Kennedy Kerrey Kerry Landrieu Lautenberg Levin Lieberman Mikulski Moynihan Reed Reid Robb Sarbanes Torricelli Wellstone Wyden NOT VOTING--2 Coats Rockefeller The motion to lay on the table the amendment (No. 31) was agreed to.