Political Quotes

“I just want to say, it is my understanding the gentleman is going to withdraw the amendment, so we are not going to have to insist on the point of order. I just want to assure both my friends from Texas that this is an issue that this body needs to deal with. We just had two votes in the last hour that were a pretty good indication that this body supports long-term storage of high-level nuclear waste. It is an issue that we have seen linger in this Congress now, well, for the last number of decades. It needs to be resolved. I am one that believes, as you do, I think--I know--that the authorizing committee needs to deal with this forthwith; and I want to give the assurance to you and all of our colleagues that, as the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, I want to continue to work on this issue on a bipartisan basis. For me, I have got two nuclear plants in my district. Both facilities, in fact, have run out of room in their pools. They are going to be storing it on-site. We have got a number of sites around the country that are closed at this point, and they are needing to send their high-level nuclear waste to one safe place. That is what the Yucca Mountain bill did that we passed, that President Reagan signed into law back in the eighties. There is a lot of discussion, particularly on the Senate side, on an interim storage site. I know that some States like Texas would very much like to participate in such a program.…”