Rod Grams: “the Senate today passed by unanimous consent the nomination of Bill Richardson to be the next Secretary of Energy. Mr.…”

“the Senate today passed by unanimous consent the nomination of Bill Richardson to be the next Secretary of Energy. Mr. Richardson's nomination passed the Senate unanimously because he was an honorable Member of Congress, he was an honorable representative for our country at the United Nations, and he is an honorable man. Mr. Richardson has the capability to be among the best Secretaries of Energy to serve our nation. But if we had voted today on Mr. Richardson's nomination, I would have voted no. I would have done so not out of doubt for Mr. Richardson's capabilities, but because of the horrible record of the Clinton Administration in responding to my concerns and the concerns of many other Members of Congress with regard to nuclear waste storage. On April 8, 1998, I wrote a detailed letter to the President outlining my dissatisfaction with responses to questions I have posed to nominees for positions within the Department of Energy. In that letter I quoted those nominees and showed very clearly how they all want to do something, how they all want to work with Congress, and how they all recognize the problems at the DOE. Regrettably, not one of them has ever been allowed to tackle the issues for which they express so much concern before Congress. This Administration has yet to allow a nominee or professional staffer from the DOE to come to Congress and speak openly about nuclear waste.”