Political Quotes

“Reclaiming my time, that is precisely the point. Both you and Mr. Shimkus made that point very well that needs to be repeated over and over: This is statutory law. And 32 different times it has been attempted to be modified on the House floor, and 32 times it has been rejected since 1995. Let me put a personal note on this because I represent the Hanford area in central Washington. It was one of the three Manhattan Projects where we developed atomic weapons to win not only the Second World War but also the Cold War. The process of developing those atomic weapons created a tremendous amount of waste, and the State of Washington has a legal agreement with the Federal Government to clean up that waste. It's called the Tri-Party Agreement. But just to give you an idea of the scope of what needs to be cleaned up there, the waste in underground tanks at Hanford would fill this Chamber over 21 times with radioactive and/or hazardous waste. That's the waste that will eventually go to the repository after it is glassified. So I thank the gentleman from Illinois for bringing this amendment forward, and I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. It's very, very important. This will be the 33rd time, I contend, that this House will have reaffirmed that Yucca should be the repository. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.”