Since 2014, working with the Corps, once we created the priority list of projects, Congress has appropriated all of the tax money that we collected.

So we are collecting $105 million in taxes for the purpose of fixing the locks and we are only spending $26 million for fixing the locks?

Well, look, I am interested in rivers too, which is why I am wondering why you are collecting $105 million from the barge owners and then not spending the money for the purpose you collect it for.

And increasing the fee has raised the annual revenues to the Trust Fund by about $20 million a year since 2014.

The President's budget estimates the Inland Waterways Trust Fund revenues, the taxes collected, for the purpose of helping the locks for this next year, are $105 million dollars.

I value the relationship we have, and the way we are able to work together with our staffs.

We're here today to review the president's fiscal year 2018 budget request for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation.

But for the last 3 years, Mr. Lamont, we have prioritized the waterways, one through four or more.

I would urge the White House, the President, and you to--I mean, this is the Senate's opportunity to confirm, to vet, to question these nominees.

if there are 500,000 unfilled jobs for construction workers today, I would hope that would be evidence that there is room for apprenticeship programs in the construction industry.

Is it true that around these universities...grow complexes of industries who are attracted by the research and who, as a result, create jobs around these centers of research?

We want to accelerate it, not slow it down.

the net effect of taking that from 28 to 10 or anything like it would be less research, and less research, we've just reminded ourselves, means more jobs moving overseas to cluster around the research wherever it is in the world.

My guess is most of those come from the Office of Management and Budget, too. So if we want to reduce some of those administrative tasks and free up more money for research grants that would be a good area to work on.

We're all excited about the future of the National Institutes of Hope, as you call it.

if there is to be any change to this, Congress wants to be involved. And I'm going to get in the middle of that, and I'll bet I can get a bipartisan group up to make sure we are.

I think we're fortunate to have you in this job at this point because this is a job that we two politicians haven't been able to solve yet.

General Klotz testified that operating the MOX project would cost at least twice as much as operating the dilute and disposal method.

It does not help to have the annual appropriation drop to $64 million when there ought to be $900 million.

clean energy is at the center of the research effort that we ought to be doing in the United States

Presidential budgets have a pretty bad record in this Congress, whether they come from democrats or republicans, and this one was especially bad.

I think there are ways to deal with the spent fuel that are appropriate from the standpoint of how you deal with nuclear energy.

Do you support building a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain?

The idea was to take an environmental burden and turn it into environmental benefit.

Do you believe we should work on all options for used nuclear fuel at the same time, and if progress on one stalls, should we continue to work on the other options?