Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill, H.R. 1320, the Nuclear Utilization of Keystone Energy Act, which I proudly introduced with my colleague, Mike Doyle. I want to also share my compliments to his staff and my staff working together very well on hammering out a lot of the technical issues and getting this done. It shows that hard work matters. The United States is home to nine nuclear power plants--my district has four of those--which provide reliable, carbon-free electricity to thousands of American homes and businesses. Unfortunately, nuclear power is at a critical impasse, and many of these plants are facing early retirements, which means a loss of clean energy, good jobs, and our global leadership on vital issues like safety and nonproliferation. This legislation, the NUKE Act, makes commonsense reforms to increase transparency, predictability, and accountability at the NRC. Because nuclear plants pay to be regulated by the NRC, these reforms, including a predictable fee recovery structure, caps on annual fees, and keeping overhead costs in line with similar Federal agencies, will not only increase stability at our operating plants, but it will also pave the way for the next generation of nuclear technology. I also think it is important to point out that many times in the energy battle, we sometimes find out we needed to do something when it is too late and you spend a lot of time playing catch-up.…”