On the recordJuly 13, 2011
I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois and the committee for helping us find a solution to this problem. There are really a couple of reasons for this amendment: One, there really is a national interest here. We've got 75,000 metric tons of nuclear waste at 80 sites in 45 States. This is a national interest, a national bill, and is an appropriation we need to get done. Two, my State is particularly acute at the Hanford site, a place where we fought World War II and the Cold War, and now we are preparing nuclear waste to go to Yucca Mountain--nuclear waste that, essentially, will be all dressed up with no place to go if we don't finish this project. This is a very small step forward, but I do think it's important, not just for the $10 million that will help us move forward on the scientific assessment of this, but the fact that it will be another statement by this House of why we need to move forward. We made that statement in 1987. We made that statement in 2002. We made it again in 2007. This is the way to do it in the appropriations system. It is an important statement to make. We've got to continue to push this ball uphill until this job gets done. I yield back the balance of my time.
