Barbara Boxer: “since 9/11, those of us on the Environment and Public Works Committee, in a very bipartisan way, have attempted to bring…”

“since 9/11, those of us on the Environment and Public Works Committee, in a very bipartisan way, have attempted to bring legislation to the Senate to begin the process whereby we can protect our nuclear power plants, first by making sure that there is an assessment made on each power plant, what are their vulnerability needs, and then making sure that these plants are protected from terrorists. We know that on September 10, 2002, in a taped interview on Al- Jazeera, it included a statement that al-Qaida initially wanted to include a powerplant in its attacks on the United States. And we on the committee passed out a bill and passed another one last month. This amendment says it is the sense of the Senate it should pass bipartisan legislation to address nuclear powerplant security prior to the August recess. Colleagues, we have a limited time. We need to move forward. I would accept a voice vote, if that is OK with Senator Gregg, and I think he would prefer that. But we would like to have a clear voice vote if we could at this time.”