Mr. Secretary, we cannot keep imposing new good-sounding regulation costs on any segment of American society, but if the President is going to go around and I am going to go around and all of us are going to go around saying we want to…

I don't know if they're right or wrong.

I introduced a bill to suggest that before the EEOC collects this massive amount of data from private employees that it first collected from all the Federal employees and see how much time it takes.

If I had more time, Mr. Chairman, I would ask, don't you think it would be a good idea to give the Federal Government a dose of its own medicine by collecting all this information from all the Federal employers before we impose it on the…

Senator Alexander. Mr. Secretary, this is a $1,000 per student. This is a prestigious group of every single college in Tennessee that is a private nonprofit college. That is an outrageous number.

You have previously stated that nearly 5 tons of plutonium have already been disposed of at WIPP using the same process you plan to use for the 6 tons in South Carolina that have nothing to do with the Russian agreement.

I congratulate you on that, and I think it's important to point out that over the last 5 years that project has gone from skyrocketing out of control to a managed process.

We need to do what we were sent here to do--to govern.

So there are 13 tons of plutonium in South Carolina.

I almost said 'hedge' because I very much believe that it's very wasteful to have a hedge at 3 to 1.

I don't believe we should or can sacrifice our ongoing efforts in nuclear security on the altar of our nuclear weapons stockpile.

And under existing agreements, there is room in the New Mexico facility for all 13 tons.

Senator Feinstein and I are working on as many paths as we can toward places for safe storage of used nuclear fuel.

We want to make sure hard-earned taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and that these projects are on time and on budget.

It looks like everybody wants an appropriations process this year, so we're hoping very much that's possible.

It would be better than the Republican debates.

I just see more money for weapons and less money for everything else.

So when you talk to Senator Alexander about 13 tons at the Savannah River site, 6 of it was not covered by the agreement.

Well, my time is up, but to summarize, you have testified that in your opinion and based on independent studies, that Congress might spend more than a half billion dollars more pursuing the MOX facility as opposed to Dilute and Dispose, so…

So we're talking about, according to those figures, saving a half billion dollars a year?

Senator Schumer said he intended to support having an appropriations process, and the Democrats have all written Senator McConnell saying they want one.

That's a lousy plan. That is absolutely the dumbest friggin' plan I could think of, to change course and hope the Russians would agree and not know what they're going to charge you for it.

Six of them, six of those tons, have nothing to do with the Russian agreement.

We said the project had to be completed by 2025 with a cost no greater than $6.5 billion.

A lot of Senators wanted some new programs and they did not get them because we eliminated 49 programs.