On the recordJune 5, 2012
I appreciate the recognition, and, to be honest with you, I don't know about conservatives from Texas or liberals from Massachusetts. I'm from Gary, Indiana, and I am here simply to ask my colleagues to not flush $100 million down a drain. That would be my technical argument. And I want to thank the gentleman from Texas and I want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for offering this amendment. I also want to thank the subcommittee chair for reducing the administration's original request that was $150 million for USEC, which is the United States Enrichment Corporation, to $100 million that is contained in this bill. I must tell you, I have serious disagreement with the committee mark on this and do believe this amendment needs to be adopted. The people of this country work too hard for the tax dollars they send to us to flush this $100 million down a drain. In 2008, when this company applied for a loan guarantee, DOE required USEC to produce a track record of running these centrifuges for a time sufficient to prove that they could be commercialized. This, we were told, would be sufficient to prove the technology. It was not. Further, I would point out that in 2010, $45 million in accounting exchange, an exchange for liability for enrichment services, was provided to the company, essentially forgiving them $45 million of liability.…
