Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I rise to speak on the amendment by Mr. Turner that addresses safety at defense nuclear facilities, that is considered in this en-block package. Much reckless damage has been done in this bill that weakens safety for workers at defense nuclear facilities and for the public. Among other changes, this hill blocks independent oversight by the Department of Energy and weakens the capacity of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. This oversight is critical to keeping people safe, and we should not be cutting corners on safety. These changes have profound implications and risk imperiling the safety and lives of worker and the public. It also transfers responsibility for safety to the National Nuclear Security Administrator and to contractors, at a time when NNSA's undivided attention should be focused on maintaining a safe, secure and reliable nuclear deterrent and on the pressing need to make much-needed progress on nuclear nonproliferation to reduce the risk of nuclear terrorism. For these reasons, Mr. Miller, Mr. Visclosky, Ms. Sanchez, Mr. Waxman and I submitted two amendments to undo some of the damage that is done in this bill, and that would have preserved strong safety standards and independent oversight. My amendment would have restored the authority of the Secretary of Energy over the nuclear weapons complex and nonproliferation programs, whose control has been improperly severed without justification in this bill.…”