Bryan, Reid block mining amendment

The move by Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Ark., would have allowed the interior secretary to increase his attempts to immediately rewrite the current mining law by issuing new surface management regulations.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a senior member of the Senate Appropriations interior subcommittee, inserted an amendment directing the National Academy of Sciences to study the adequacy of federal and state mining regulations before issuing any new rules for the 1999 appropriations bill.

Reid and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., engineered Tuesday's Senate floor effort to defeat Bumpers' amendment to strike Reid's provision from the bill.

"This is welcome news from Washington," Nevada Mining Association President Russ Fields said in Reno.

The industry is opposed to adding any layers of federal control to a business they say is closely monitored by the states.

"This duplication only adds more time to an already lengthy permitting process and increases costs on our business at a time when metal prices are at very low levels," he said.

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