WASHINGTON — As the Senate tries to wrap up its defense budget bill for 2005, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., protected a fragile nuclear victory he savored earlier this month.

Then, it had been won by the closest of votes. Graham had successfully added language to a bill that would allow the storage of high-level nuclear waste at the Savannah River Site near Aiken — storage that is now prohibited by federal law.

But U.S. Sens. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., called the move a dangerous precedent and asked the Senate to strike Graham’s language.

The Senate refused on June 3: 48-48.

Cantwell knew that several senators sympathetic to her efforts had not been in Washington when the vote was taken.

She could try again when they returned. Recently, she thought she had the votes.

But Graham, who says on-site storage is safe and cheaper than hauling it to a federal repository, can count noses as well as Cant-well.

He talked to U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. Would Smith, who voted with Cantwell last time, vote against her if he had extra assurances that high-level nuclear waste would not remain in Oregon?

Smith, according to sources on both sides of the question, said he would and received the extra guarantee he needed.

Cantwell saw she could not win on the Senate floor and did not try.

Graham’s language still must be approved by a House-Senate conference committee.

AND THE KITCHEN SINK

Some — including Cantwell — have argued that it would have been more appropriate for Graham to resolve the nuclear waste storage issue in an energy bill, rather than in the defense budget bill.

But nuclear waste seems to fit into the military budget a bit better than protecting children from violent television shows.

Yet Hollings gleefully announced last week that a measure he had been trying to enact into law for a decade — to protect children from violent TV — finally made it into a major piece of legislation.

You guessed it — that same defense authorization bill.

The measure would require the Federal Communications Commission to study whether the “V-chip” technology that helps parents screen out potentially harmful programming works adequately when it comes to violent television.

The FCC also would have to determine whether the system that rates shows for violent content is doing its job. If not, the agency would have to prohibit violent shows during the hours children watch most.

To safeguard children, highly sexual programs may not run during certain hours, but the same does not hold for violent shows. Hollings points to studies that link violent behavior in children to their exposure to violent programming.

Like the nuclear storage issue, this measure will be retained or thrown out of the defense authorization bill in a House-Senate conference committee, which is expected to meet within the next few weeks.

To become law, the defense bill must be approved by both the House and Senate and signed by President Bush.

Heard on the Hill

“We have made mistakes. We have underestimated how many people we need on the ground. We have made it difficult at times to get international cooperation. But that’s in the past. It is now time for NATO to help where NATO can.”

— U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaking from Iraq on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos”

Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com.