The U.S. House of Representatives voted October 30 to support HR 1270, the "Mobile Chernobyl Act," by a margin of 307-120.

The vote is a defeat for those of us attempting to stop unnecessary radioactive waste transportation and the establishment of "temporary" nuclear waste storage sites.

146 votes against the bill were necessary to demonstrate the ability to sustain a veto by President Clinton against the bill. Obviously, we fell short of that goal.

Several amendments to the bill were offered; all of the relevant ones were defeated by large margins. The next Nuclear Monitor will contain a chart of the votes on all of the relevant ones. The vote lists, and text of debate on the bill itself, are available on NIRS website

The process from here is that the House and Senate must have a conference committee to work out the differences between the bills they have passed. Then both Houses must vote again on the conference committee bill. The bill will then go to President Clinton, who has promised repeatedly to veto the measure. Then, presumably, the House and Senate will attempt to override President Clinton's veto. Both Houses must gain a 2/3 majority in order to override the veto-if one House votes to sustain the veto, then it will be sustained. The time frame for these actions is not yet known; we will keep you posted.

The Senate passed its bill by a margin of two votes short of the ability to override a veto. 26 more votes would be needed in the House to sustain a veto.

Even given that many Democrats will find it difficult to challenge their President on a veto override vote, two votes is not a comfortable margin; 26 votes short is even less comfortable--although some Congressional staffers are saying that it is entirely possible to gain these votes. But clearly there is a lot of work to do.

There are several reasons for the disappointing House vote. For now, it is important to understand that the nuclear industry spent a lot of money on this vote (and we've never even tried to compete with that), but also out-organized us. Our strength always has been in people power-phone calls, letters, faxes, e-mails, etc-but for this vote, the nuclear industry matched us. Many House members reported either not hearing from constituents, or hearing nearly equally from both sides.

For now, if your House member voted against HR 1270, PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO WRITE A NOTE THANKING HIM/HER. These House members have earned our support,and they deserve to hear our thanks.

If your House member voted for HR 1270, you should let your displeasure be known, both to the member and as loudly and publicly as possible.

And we simply must organize: door-to-door; talking to neighbors, colleagues, at work, at the grocery….every Congressional District should have signs up across the District about this issue-even photocopies stapled to telephone poles or traffic light poles would help. NIRS still has brochures and fact sheets available for your use-use them!

We can either win this effort in Congress, by sustaining a Presidential veto, or we can win it in the streets. We cannot afford to lose it, and it is probably easier and less traumatic to win it in Congress!

But it may also be time to begin thinking about the barricades and how we will stop the casks if they try to move them…. That such a large majority of the House could vote for this signals something desperately wrong. It represents either a complete misunderstanding of the issues or a deliberate disregard for the American people in favor of the most despicable industry ever to sully our shores… And it cannot go unchallenged.