John Shimkus: “What if we don't do this? Here is a chart. Here is Yucca Mountain, secure, in the desert, underneath a mountain, 90…”

“What if we don't do this? Here is a chart. Here is Yucca Mountain, secure, in the desert, underneath a mountain, 90 miles from Las Vegas. Right here in this Chamber, we are 44 miles from the nearest nuclear power plant. It just happens to be Calvert Cliffs. It is on the Chesapeake Bay, and so it is close. The State of Nevada will argue it will hurt our tourism. Well, let me tell you, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City have more tourists than Las Vegas and are closer to spent nuclear fuel than any other place. Again, it is a travesty that we spend $2.2 million every day for not complying with the law. This bill does not help us comply with the law. In fact, I would say this bill breaks the law, which is another example for the great American public to observe how dysfunctional we are in this day and age in the people's House. It saddens me. I thank my colleague for yielding me the time. Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, just to respond to my good friend, Mr. Cole, who I have great, great admiration for, but the gentleman said that more Democratic amendments were made in order. Well, let's kind of put that into context. More Democratic amendments were submitted, period. Actually, more than half of the amendments were Democratic. Let me put it this way: Twice as many Democratic amendments were offered as Republican amendments, and there was a big chunk of bipartisan amendments that were made in order.…”