On the recordMay 24, 2016
I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Like the ranking member, I would oppose this amendment. It would reduce funds in the following accounts: EERE, nuclear energy, fossil energy, and other accounts throughout this bill. We spend an awful lot of time making sure that we continue our responsibility to effectively manage government spending, and we have worked tirelessly to that end. These are targeted funds to provide needed investments and to efficiently and safely utilize our natural resources and invest in the next technological innovations. It is interesting that years ago, we used to have what were called the Bell Laboratories, and they did a lot of the research and stuff that is now done by government. Because it has gotten too expensive, any individual company can't do a lot of the research that is done. I will give you an example in the nuclear energy arena. At the Idaho National Lab, we have the advanced test reactors. It is the only one in the United States that does this. Private companies come, as well as government and other organizations, to test new fuels, new designs of fuels, and those types of things. This is not something that can be done by the private sector. So there are a lot of things that the government does and research that the government does that the private sector, frankly, just doesn't have the resources to do that need to get done. That is what we expect our national laboratories to do.…
