William Bryan: “Mr. President, I want to continue this discussion of my colleague. Each of us was thinking in the same frame of…”

“Mr. President, I want to continue this discussion of my colleague. Each of us was thinking in the same frame of reference. He said no matter how much you dress up a pig it's still a pig. I learned as a youngster the old adage, you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. And that is exactly what we have here. We have not had a chance to review in detail all the asserted changes that the chairman of the committee intends, and we will have a chance to comment on that tomorrow. But central to this debate, the basic issue, the point at which all discussion begins, every thoughtful and analytical and policy frame of reference, is the question of whether or not we should place interim storage anywhere before a determination is made with respect to a permanent repository or dump. That is why the administration continues to oppose this legislation, Senator Bingaman opposes this legislation, why every environmental organization in America opposes this legislation. Because the basic flaw is this is unnecessary and unwise. We will have a chance to expand upon this tomorrow. But you go back to the origin of this debate, 17 years ago, you scratch the surface and always the nuclear utility industry and its highly paid advocates have one mission and one mission only--remove the waste from the reactor site.”