Political Quotes

“I appreciate the gentleman from New Mexico's statement that sometimes it's best to make things as simple as possible. So looking at this as the most simple as possible, the gentleman's amendment merely says: ``Strike.'' So we're striking a provision from the current bill. That provision of the bill merely says that $150 million is for domestic national security-related enrichment technology. {time} 0120 Domestic. And what is this for? This is for our nuclear weapons programs. This is not for a truck fleet to take things from one side of the country to the other. This is our nuclear weapons program. This provision that is asked to be struck says that it is for domestic national security-related enrichment technology. That means that if you're not doing domestic, you're going to have the United States be subject to foreign sources. Again, these are critical components of our nuclear weapons infrastructure and our nuclear Navy. We do not want to have foreign dependence upon a critical infrastructure. Tom D'Agostino, director of the NNSA, recently came and briefed members of the Armed Services Committee and those who had an interest in this amendment. And he said, Conclusion: Domestic uranium enrichment capability is required to support national security and meet nuclear nonproliferation objectives. So we have, one, a critical component of nuclear weapons; two, the issue of domestic or foreign; three, whether or not it's necessary and we need it.…”