Political Quotes

“Let me express my deep appreciation to the committee and staff for helping us zero in on a couple of things that are longstanding interests of mine. One is an amendment requiring the Department of Defense to have a cost estimate and program evaluation for unexpected cost increases for the W80-40 nuclear warhead life extension program. I appreciate this giving us a little more information. But I would like to focus on one particular area that has been deeply troubling me for years. I have, in the middle of the city of Portland, a Superfund site that people have been working on cleaning up the toxic residue of years. And one party has not been a part of this effort, the Department of Defense. The Department of Defense built and decommissioned battleships for World War I, World War II, and the Korean war in the heart of the city. We have been working on a hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars cleanup working with the private sector, working with individuals, with utilities, and local governments. The Federal Government has been missing in action. We found this last summer as we were starting some of the remedial cleanup. Over 400 shells were dug up, and still, the Department of Defense is missing in action, not taking responsibility for cleaning up the toxic legacy of military activities in my community and around the country. I have worked on this for years. I have been extraordinarily frustrated that the Department of Defense pushes this responsibility off. It is time to change.…”