Political Quotes

“I rise to thank a number of people here tonight. I thank the chairman of our committee, the gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. Bliley], and the gentleman from Colorado [Mr. Dan Schaefer]. Without their leadership, we would not see this bill to the floor this evening. I also want to thank, on the other side of the aisle, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Dingell], the ranking member, and the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Hall], who have been terrific. I, too, share in thanking the two gentlemen from Nevada, who have been very good debaters, they have been very persistent, they have made us do our homework for sure, and they have been very tough. I appreciate that, as well. I also thank the gentleman from New York [Mr. Towns], my coauthor, the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Hastert], the gentleman from Idaho [Mr. Crapo], and the 165 Members of the House that have cosponsored the bill. We have heard tonight that it passed our committee 43 to 3. We passed it by about the same margin in the last Congress, as well. Nuclear power, the decision for nuclear power, was made many decades ago. Part of that strategy was always that the Federal Government would be responsible for the permanent storage of the high-level nuclear waste. That was part of the equation. That is what this bill does. It in essence moves it to one safe place. Today we have about 100 different nuclear reactor sites around the country.”