Alan Simpson: “I appreciate the gentlelady's passion with which she speaks about that, and I understand it, but when she says the…”

“I appreciate the gentlelady's passion with which she speaks about that, and I understand it, but when she says the failed Yucca Mountain policy, I have to remind her that Yucca Mountain is the law of the land. The policy of Yucca Mountain has not failed, and Yucca Mountain has not failed. What happened is that someone running for the Presidency of the United States needed four electoral votes--or five or however many it was--in Nevada, so he promised the citizens of Nevada that he would shut down Yucca Mountain, regardless of what the law said, and that is what happened. We can argue as to whether Yucca Mountain is the right place or not. I think there have been 52 or 53 studies done on Yucca Mountain. It is the most studied piece of earth on this Earth. We know more about it than anywhere else; yet, for political reasons, we have stopped it, and it will truly be a $15 billion waste if we don't proceed. What we do in this bill is tell the administration to proceed with following the law, so I oppose the gentlelady's amendment. I now yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus), who has been an advocate and an ardent supporter of this for many years here in Congress.”