Wednesday, March 26, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said he would be "very surprised" if a bill to send nuclear waste to an interim dump in Nevada ever makes it out of the Senate.
He said at a news conference Tuesday that Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan, both D-Nev., can place a "hold" on a bill and he said, "I would be very surprised if that hold is released and that bill gets out and is passed."
But Susan McCue, press secretary for Reid, said Nevada's two senators are not tipping their hand on the strategy they will use to fight the bill this year. A vote on the bill is set for April 8 and debate could begin one or two days before.
"We're keeping all our options open," McCue said when asked about Gibbons' statement of placing a "hold" on the bill.
She said the senators' goal is to get enough votes to sustain a veto, as promised by President Clinton. That would require 34 senators.
McCue said there is overwhelming support for the measure in the House to ship the high-level radioactive waste to the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. "The only place we can stop the bill is in the Senate," she said.
Last year, Gibbons and Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., asked Speaker Newt Gingrich not to schedule a vote during the election campaign because it would hurt their chances. Gingrich agreed.
Gibbons, asked if he had approached Gingrich again, lobbed the ball into the Senate's court.
"The bill is starting in the Senate. It isn't starting in the House," Gibbons said. "We shouldn't have to deal with this. They (the senators) can hold this bill until it dies."
McCue said the senators conducted a "rolling filibuster" in the last session to stall the bill.
Gibbons, a freshman congressman, also criticized a proposal for Sacramento, Calif., to ship its garbage for burial at a site east of Reno.
"These people believe that they should heap their spoiled garbage on us. I say: 'Rubbish!' We won't be trashed with their fried, green, organic waste."
Gibbons, in Carson City to address the Legislature, also said he supported the proposed appointment of State Gaming Control Board Chairman Bill Bible to the National Gaming Commission.
He called Bible an "excellent choice because he brings with him an institutional knowledge of the regulation of the gaming industry. He is probably one of the brightest people with regard to our regulatory scheme in Nevada, which I consider to be the leading edge of gaming regulation."
Gibbons said the federal government wants to get control of the gaming industry and then tax it. If that happened, he said some casinos in Nevada would not survive.
In his speech to the Legislature, Gibbons said students should tackle English, math, history and science before moving on to computers.
"Much has been said about computers and the Internet," he said. "These are wonderful tools. ... But they are simply two of many. They haven't, can't and never will substitute for the books in our libraries."
At a news conference later, he said he was not criticizing Gov. Bob Miller, who has recommended $35 million be spent to begin a program of putting five computers in every classroom. Miller's program has been criticized by some top Republican legislators, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio of Reno.
As in his campaign, Gibbons complained about the Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Land Management. He said citizens are concerned about the "intrusive nature of the IRS" and he will co-sponsor a bill to require greater accountability of the agency.
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