Political Quotes

“I thank Chairman Serrano for yielding. Madam Chair, I rise in support of amendment No. 35 to direct the National Institute of Standards and Technologies to establish standards for pyrrhotite in concrete aggregate. Pyrrhotite is a mineral that, unfortunately, has been mixed into concrete aggregate and is widespread in concrete foundations in residential, commercial, and municipal buildings in Connecticut and Massachusetts and parts of Quebec, Canada, that, after exposure to moisture, causes the material to prematurely crumble and collapse because of rusting. Again, estimates are as high as thousands of structures in the New England region, causing catastrophic losses to homeowners and municipalities. By establishing standards for pyrrhotite content, NIST could mitigate the problem from occurring in other areas, or at least reducing the costs of mitigation. Right now, any level of pyrrhotite is considered a cancer on a property and makes it unmarketable. This amendment would allocate $4 million from the NIST's general operations toward pyrrhotite research, which my office and others have been discussing over the last year, and would require NIST to research best testing methods for pyrrhotite detection as well as developing a pyrrhotite risk rating scale. This amendment would utilize the world's leading researchers to mitigate the cost of this problem. I urge adoption of the en bloc, and again, I want to thank Mr. Aderholt and Mr.…”