María Elvira Salazar: “I will be very short. I want to first congratulate my good friend from Colorado, Senator Allard, for the sponsorship of…”

“I will be very short. I want to first congratulate my good friend from Colorado, Senator Allard, for the sponsorship of these amendments which are important for Rocky Flats and for the cleanup of our DOE facilities. I think we have a great facility and a model in the State of Colorado that is applicable to other Department of Energy sites and in the end we are going to be able to provide some cost savings to our whole DOE cleanup challenge in this country. The legislation in front of us in the form of the modified amendments would do two things: One, it would help all of the employees who have been laid off at Rocky Flats because of the closure of that plant and the surplus funds would therefore go for a very good purpose to help with the retirement of the employees who have worked at Rocky Flats for a very long time. The second amendment deals with the mineral rights, which is all part of completing the stewardship process at the DOE facility, which will be one of the first ones cleaned up in the Nation. So I applaud my friend from Colorado for helping in this effort and for having worked on it for such a long time. I also want to state my appreciation to the minority leader, Senator Reid, for his work on this effort as well as to the chairman, Senator Pete Domenici, and Senator Warner for his great assistance in this effort as well. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.”