Political Quotes

“I have wracked my brain to try to find a Democratic amendment that the distinguished Republican manager could support, and I know I have hit upon it. It's a low-impact amendment, modest in the extreme, but with high payoff and gravy: a $3 million net savings, according to the scoring. As we've learned time and time again, Madam Chairman, from weather disasters and other emergencies, having a reliable and resilient energy structure is absolutely vital to national security, our economy, and to the stability of the community. I appreciate the committee acknowledging in its report the current strain being placed on our aging power infrastructure and the need for more modern, efficient systems. In fact, I and other members of the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Caucus have been advocating for increased Federal investments to meet those very needs for some time. The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Research and Development account--a mouthful, I admit--which supports the very technologies that will help modernize our power grid, unfortunately, is cut in this bill by 50 percent. I'm offering, as I said, this simple, modest, commonsense amendment I know will appeal to the Republican manager by transferring a mere $15.5 million from the Nuclear Weapons Activity Account, which received a $98 million increase above last year. This also would reduce outlays actually by $3 million, according to the CBO.…”