Political Quotes

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding time. Madam Speaker, I rise today in reluctant opposition to H.R. 4502, the seven-bill fiscal year 2022 appropriations package that includes the Energy and Water Development appropriations bill. I had hoped to be able to support the appropriations bill this year. Unfortunately, the overall funding framework for these bills lacks bipartisan support. The House framework includes massive increases for non-defense programs and shortchanges our national security needs. Taken in isolation, there are many things in the Energy and Water bill that House Republicans could support. For example, strong support for the Corps of Engineers, including specific community project funding and additional programmatic funding, is a bipartisan priority. Of great importance to me, of course, is the Department of Energy's nuclear energy program. I appreciate Chairwoman Kaptur's efforts to address many of my priorities within this account. In particular, I am pleased to see increased funding to continue three demonstration projects under the Advanced Small Modular Reactor and Advanced Reactors Demonstration programs, as well as continued work on microreactors, including the MARVEL program. Also notable is the support for ensuring a supply of high-assay, low- enriched uranium, or HALEU, that will be the fuel that will be used by many of the next generation of reactors.…”