Bob Filner: “Mr. Chairman, I rise today as part of a strong bipartisan opposition to this amendment which would delete the funding…”

“Mr. Chairman, I rise today as part of a strong bipartisan opposition to this amendment which would delete the funding for the GT-MHR Development Program. I have heard the opponents to this program argue that it is a pork project, that it is an example of corporate welfare. They have said that this pork has cost the taxpayers $900 million. Well, let us set the record straight. Approximately $900 million has been appropriated from taxpayers' money to be spent on high temperature gas cooled reactor technology. But this expenditure has been a sound public investment for the following reasons. We have had in fact a sound public investment for these reasons: Number one, an amount substantially equal to the taxpayers' $900 million has also been invested by private industry in the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology. This is the kind of government and industry partnership we want for research and development to advance promising technologies.”