The House handily defeated a bipartisan amendment today that would have stripped $150 million out of the "National Defense Authorization Act" to keep an embattled uranium enrichment project in Ohio afloat.

The House voted 121-300 to reject language that Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) introduced to bar federal funding for ongoing research at the $5 billion American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

Republican Reps. John Shimkus of Illinois, Michael Burgess of Texas and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming were also backing the language.

The amendment would have blocked funding for Bethesda, Md.-based U.S. Enrichment Corp. (USEC) to conduct research at the federal Ohio facility. The company has warned that without another infusion of federal funds, it will be forced to close the facility by the end of the month. USEC ultimately hopes to secure a $2 billion DOE loan guarantee (E&E Daily, May 18).

Markey and Pearce have likened the project to the bankrupt solar firm Solyndra, despite strong backing for the project by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The lawmakers have also questioned the argument that the plant is key to national security because it can help generate tritium for nuclear weapons.

Pearce said in a statement that he still believes the USEC project is a waste of taxpayer dollars for a failed company.

"I took this issue on hoping that Washington was done providing federal bailouts," he said. "I appreciate and respect the healthy public debate on this important issue. At the end of the day, I am comfortable knowing that I, along with my colleagues that supported the amendment, can look our constituents in the eye and say we stood up and fought to protect their hard earned tax dollars."

Markey and Pearce's effort had also garnered the support of anti-nuclear groups, free-market advocates and government watchdogs, but it drew opposition from the Nuclear Energy Institute.

USEC said in a statement today that the House vote shows Congress recognizes the "need for a domestic uranium enrichment capability for national security purposes." Ensuring a domestic enrichment technology will also help the country curb nuclear proliferation and reach energy independence, the company said.

Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio), who supports the project, said, "USEC would be the only source of weapons-grade enriched uranium," a service that other foreign-owned companies cannot provide.

Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, agreed that the USEC plant is needed to support domestic weapons production.

"Other countries prohibit selling enriched uranium to the U.S. for military purposes," he said. "The only way we can get enriched uranium for our military purposes is if we have a domestically owned enrichment capability."