Political Quotes

“I appreciate the comments of my friends from Tennessee and Washington. In Colorado, in my district, we have two of those plants which are World War II and Cold War legacy plants--Rocky Flats and the Rocky Mountain Arsenal--so I appreciate the comments and the need to clean these sites up. It is long overdue. I agree with you, and I look forward to that. The problem we have here, on the one hand, are substantial cuts to the Energy Department's budget and, on the other hand, an increase to this line item above and beyond the President's request. As I understand it, the committee recommends to the House $345 million, which is $23.5 million over the administration's request. Although I agree completely with the need to clean up, the majority party is requesting more than is needed at this point, and it is to the detriment of the rest of the budget of the Energy Department. Particularly, the one that I'm concerned about is renewable energy, such as the National Renewable Energy Lab, and I will have an amendment to that point coming up later. So, to my friends, I agree with you that the cleanup needs to go forward. It should be done at the full amount the President requested and not at the $23 million more that has been suggested by the committee. I yield back the balance of my time. {time} 1700”