Political Quotes

“let me go back to the basic reason we are debating this Compact today. This Compact is before the Senate today because we shifted the responsibility to manage low-level nuclear waste to the states almost a decade ago. Congress encouraged the states to enter into compacts to share this responsibility. Forty-one states have already followed our direction by entering into compacts very similar to the one we have before us today. With the expectation that Congress would ratify their compact, just like we have nine other times, the states of Texas, Vermont and Maine entered into this Compact. That was more than four years ago. We have delayed this Compact long enough. The amendments that Senator Wellstone offered to the Compact when it passed the Senate earlier this year would delay implementation of this Compact even further. When the Conference Committee considered these amendments, we not only heard opposition to the amendments from the National Governors' Association and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but also from each of the governors of Texas, Maine and Vermont. Their letter urges Congress to pass the Compact without amendments. The letter makes it clear that the governors believe that the amendments would require re-ratification by the states and would undoubtedly lead to costly and time-consuming litigation. But their letter raises what I think is the most important question: what is our role in ratifying this Compact?”