After considering the matter for more than a year, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has declined,¹ over the dissent of one of its members, to become the first federal agency to provide financial assistance to indigent participants in administrative proceedings in the absence of an express statutory grant of authority.² In deciding not to initiate such a program, the Commission concluded that its existing power under enabling laws and appropriations statutes to grant assistance is so limited that the possibility of assistance awards without more explicit statutory authorization is essentially illusory. The Commission therefore held that resolution of the intervenor assistance issue is up to Congress. NRC decided against recommending enactment of additional authorizing legislation, however, except in one specific instance—the ongoing rulemaking on the commercial use of plutonium mixed-oxide fuel—after concluding that policy considerations weigh against its recommending that Congress establish a general assistance program.

Commissioner Victor Gilinsky dissented from the decision, arguing that NRC should issue rules allowing assistance awards on a case-by-case basis whenever the strict standard governing exercise of the Commission's existing power can be met. Galinsky also disagreed with NRC's refusal to recommend congressional enactment of legislation expressly authorizing such awards under certain circumstances to participants in licensing, rulemaking, and enforcement proceedings before the agency, saying that in his view the Commission's decision on this point went against the relevant policy considerations.