Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of an amendment that I asked my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support, and Mr. Higgins from the other side of the aisle has joined me on this amendment. With all due respect to the subcommittee chairman of the Appropriations Committee, I believe this amendment is wise, that it is an appropriate amendment. And that is because what we are talking about here with my proposed amendment is taking $41 million in funding to Non-Defense Environmental Cleanup--to take that money from multiple administrative accounts and utilize the money for in-the-field cleanup activity for sites such as that which exist in my district known as the West Valley Nuclear Demonstration Project in western New York. My hope is that by doing this amendment, we will stop money from being funneled more into the DC bureaucracy but rather be funneled and put out into the field and into the nuclear waste sites so that the sites can be remediated once and for all. The Department of Energy estimates that by making the investment now in nuclear site remediation, we will save our Nation hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming decades. If properly funded, the Department of Energy can complete phase one of the West Valley project in my congressional district by 2020. This alone is estimated to save taxpayers $120 million.…”