Authority To Provide Financial Assistance to Participants in NRC Proceedings

GAO was asked whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) may use appropriated funds to assist intervenors in certain of its proceedings, when the Congress has neither expressly approved nor prohibited such assistance by law. It was also asked whether there are circumstances under which the NRC may use fiscal year 1980 funds to assist intervenors although the House Committee on Appropriations has indicated in its report that the appropriation act for 1980 does not contain funds for intervenors. In an earlier decision, GAO determined that the NRC could properly use its appropriated funds to assist intervenors if it determined that it could not make licensing determinations unless financial assistance was extended to certain interested parties who require it, and whose participation is essential to dispose of the matters before it. GAO concluded that based on the authority granted by its organic legislation, the NRC may use appropriated funds to assist an intervenor in its proceedings if it determines that the participation of that party can be expected to contribute substantially to a full and fair determination of the issue before it, if that party is unable otherwise to finance its participation. Concerning the second question, current legislation provides a lump-sum amount for necessary NRC expenses and contains no prohibition on the use of these funds to assist intervenors in the NRC proceedings. However, a House Report stated that the budget request and the committee recommendation do not include funds for intervenors. There was no similar language in the Senate Appropriations Committee Report. The appropriations committee indicated that it was not including any funds for intervenors, and the appropriation act contains no such provision. In the absence of express statutory prohibition on spending appropriated funds for assisting intervenors, the NRC may legally use fiscal year 1980 funds for that purpose.