On the recordMay 10, 2018
I can't think of a more unrewarding, difficult, fruitless issue to be asked to be the leader on than trying to find a solution to high-level nuclear waste. Can you imagine if, when you get elected to Congress, you are called into the Speaker's office or the minority leader's office and said: Now, I know you are young and bright and everything, but we want you to take the lead on something that we haven't been able to solve in 30 years. Well, that is what John Shimkus and Congressman Tonko have been tasked to do. There is not a more unpleasant issue in the 30-something years I have been in the House than this issue. Having said that, it is probably one of the most important issues to solve. We have, at one time, over 100 operating nuclear reactors. They generate electricity every day, and they use and eventually consume their nuclear fuel rods. And when they have been used up, you can't put them on the curb and tell the trash to pick them up. Now, Mr. Tonko and Mr. Shimkus have worked, not just this Congress, but the last Congress, and in the case of John Shimkus, probably the last six Congresses, seven Congresses, to try to solve this. We have a bipartisan bill today. I predict it is going to get in the neighborhood of 260 to maybe 300 votes. It solves the problem. And the key, in my opinion, to what they have done is that they have allowed for an interim storage facility in a State that approves it beforehand.…
