Timothy Roemer: “I say ``thank you'' to the chairman for his support for this amendment, and to the gentleman from Tennessee who just…”

“I say ``thank you'' to the chairman for his support for this amendment, and to the gentleman from Tennessee who just spoke, I share a great deal of admiration for him. He was at many of the hearings where we debated the future of our national laboratories, and I would say this, he quoted from the Galvin report. Certainly a major part of my amendment is taken directly from the Galvin report in terms of terminating the self-regulation by DOE of the national laboratories and doing it more efficiently, doing it like businesses do it. I would say, second, the gentleman represents Oak Ridge, which is one of the best national laboratories we have. My amendment does not say we are going to cut Oak Ridge by 33 percent. In fact, what the effect of my amendment might be is to say Oak Ridge is a great laboratory, it is doing things very well. We may move some work from other national laboratories to Tennessee in order to increase our efficiencies and to do things better with the group of scientists that are currently doing a great job there. It does not mandate closures.”