Political Quotes

“I want to thank the chairman of the Environment Subcommittee, my friend, Mr. Shimkus, who has worked tirelessly--not just this year, not just last year, but probably since the first year he came to Congress--to try and find a permanent solution to the storage of nuclear waste in America. He has been a tireless worker in this endeavor, a smart worker in this endeavor, and a successful, so far, worker in this endeavor, as this bill passed out of the committee 49-4. I rise tonight to address this pressing national need, and that is the importance of fixing our broken nuclear waste management program. It was more than 35 years ago that the United States Congress made a commitment to communities throughout our Nation which host spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. Congress, the Federal Government, agreed to assign the Department of Energy with the responsibility to permanently dispose of hazardous material, nuclear waste, by 1998. There are many of those communities, like in the Tri-Cities in Washington State, co-located with the Department of Energy's Hanford site just up Columbia River, across the river from where I live and the people I represent. We have been DOE's partner to help win World War II at that site. It has maintained a nuclear weapon deterrent and powered our fleet of nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers.…”