Pete Sessions: “I thank Chairman Warner. I chair the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces of the Armed Services Committee. This matter is…”

“I thank Chairman Warner. I chair the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces of the Armed Services Committee. This matter is under our subcommittee's oversight area. I have great respect for Senator Allard, who is proposing the amendment. He chaired the same subcommittee. He is very much loyal to his workers in Colorado. He is very much determined they get everything that he can get them, and I think maybe a little more than they would be entitled to under a fair reading of the statute and the contract that is involved. Therefore, with the greatest respect to Senator Allard and others who may be supporting this amendment, I would oppose it. It reaches into a relationship between the contractor employees who are performing the cleanup at Rocky Flats and their employer, who is a company called Kaiser Hill. Kaiser Hill won the contract with the Department of Energy to perform cleanup work, and this deals with their relationship with their employees, not Government employees but employees for Kaiser Hill. How would it amend those terms of that agreement between Kaiser Hill and its private employees? The amendment directs the U.S. Secretary of Energy to instruct Kaiser Hill to grant retirement and health benefits to employees that those employees would have earned if the cleanup had taken longer than it actually did. So that is why, of course, the Department of Energy opposes it. They have looked at this very carefully.…”