Political Quotes

“I appreciate Mr. Reed yielding. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the amendment, which seeks to modestly increase the funding to the nondefense environmental cleanup program. Passage of this amendment, as Mr. Reed has said, will ensure nuclear cleanup sites across the country receive adequate funding, thereby protecting communities from the harmful effects of radioactive waste. In western New York, as Mr. Reed has said, the West Valley nuclear waste processing plant was established in 1966 in response to Federal calls to commercialize the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. When the facility terminated its operation only a few years later, it left in its wake more than 600,000 gallons of high-level radioactive waste, a hazardous and unfortunate legacy that the community is still dealing with today. This is a public safety and environmental hazard that we cannot ignore. The leakage of a plume of radioactive material at that site into groundwater underscores the danger posed by the proximity of the facility to streams that drain into Lake Erie. If this radioactive waste were to make its way into the Great Lakes, the effects would be devastating. Simply put, it is the responsibility of the Federal Government to make sure that cleanup proceeds expeditiously. Mr. Chairman, it is critical that we maintain our commitment to West Valley and other nuclear sites across the country by continuing to support remediation efforts.…”