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Sec. §02.—This provision directs the Secretary of the Treasury,
upon the request of the Governor, to assume the administration of
customs collection in American Samoa. At present, American Samoa
imports too little to make the collection of customs duties economical.
Assistance from the Treasury will be of great assistance to the local
government.
TITLE VI—3{ISCELLANEOUS
Sec. 601.—This provision requires the Department of the Interior
to waive matching requirements on federal grant programs to the territories. The Committee appreciates the difliculty of combining programmatic and formula grants, but expects that the Department will
muke every effort to see that the benefits of grant legislation are exficulty some territories have with in kind matching requirements due.
to traditional, non-common law customs and expects that the Department will be similarly sensitive.
Sec. 602.—These provisions are self-explanatory.
Sec. 603.—This section authorizes the territories to use federal
facililities and services on a reimbursable basis.
Sec. 604,—This provision 1s self-explanatory.
Sec. 605.—This section adds the text of 5. 1119 as passed by tho
Senate.
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The purpose of S. 1119 is to insure that the Secretary of the Interior
informs the Congress of any proposals for the transportation of spent
nuclear fuel or high level radioactive waste to or for the storage of
such material on any territory or possession of the United States. The
measure also requires specific authorization by Congress of any such
proposal.
.
On March 28, an article appeared in the Washington Post entitled
“U.S. Proposes Storing Spent Nuclear Fuel on Pacific Isle.” The
article stated that the United States had proposed to the Government of Japan the use of an American owned island for the storege
of spent nuclear fuel. The article quoted “administration sources” as
saying “a number of American islands are being studied as the possible site for spent fuel storage, some inhabited and some uninhabited.”
In light of the committee’s responsibilities both for territories and
insular affairs and for the nuclear waste storage program, Senator
Jackson wrote to the Secretaries of State, Energy, and Interior expressing his concern that the committee had not been notified of the
negotiations or the proposal. The Department of the Interior responded that they knew nothing about this proposal; the Department
of nergy responded that they were not the lead agency but were
sorry the committee had not been told; and the Department of State
responded that section 104 of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Act of
1978 required them to enter into these negotiations and that: “Of
course, no major step would be taken in this issue without consulting
you, your committee and other interested inembers of Congress, and,
as appropriate, seeking congressional approval.” Subsequent to Senator Jackson’s letter, the Department of Innergy submitted a classified
document containing background materials, and the Department of
State provided a general briefing for the committee.
A major concern of the committee was, andstill is, the unwillingness of the State Department to identify in public the potential sites.
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tendedto the territories. The Committee is especially aware of the dif-