Political Quotes

“I, too, rise in strong opposition to this amendment. I do appreciate the gentlelady's concerns, particularly about science funding. However, Mr. Chairman, increasing funding for optional programs, as valuable as they may be, cannot come at the expense of the Federal Government's meeting its existing legal obligations to clean up the waste created by our Nation's nuclear defense programs. I might add, Mr. Chairman, that these were programs that won World War II and that largely won the Cold War. At Hanford, in my district, the Federal Government has 56 million gallons of radioactive nuclear waste stored in 177 underground tanks. Today, it appears likely that some of these tanks are leaking, and higher levels of contamination have now been detected in the areas surrounding one of the most recent leakers. In addition, there is also a large quantity of radioactive waste at Hanford that was never put into tanks. That, too, must be dealt with as well as the nuclear waste at other sites across the country, like at the Savannah River, Oak Ridge, and Idaho. Again, it is nuclear waste that was created by programs of the Federal Government for defense purposes. Cutting $1.7 billion from the EM program would essentially halt most nuclear waste cleanup work, and it would put the safety of our cleanup sites at risk and end any chance of the Federal Government's meeting its existing legal cleanup commitments to the States. Mr. Chairman, let me be more specific about Hanford.…”