Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I wish to thank the ranking member from New York, Nita Lowey, for yielding me this time and for the wonderful work she has done on 12 bills, and this is but the first.

I also want to thank the chair of the full committee, Congressman Frelinghuysen, whose service has been so meritorious. We miss his service on the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Committee directly, but he has moved up to greater things.

I also thank Chairman Simpson and the members of our fine subcommittee and our staff on our side of the aisle, Jaime Shimek and T.J. Loudermilk, and on the majority side, Angie Giancarlo, for their hard work on this bill under rushed circumstances.

I value the hard work that all of you have put into this bill and the dispatch with which Chair Simpson has moved through the process, including with great cordiality.

Our bill contributes to ensuring the critical availability of energy and waterway improvements for domestic stability and national security, not just for today but for the tomorrows to come.

Energy is the power that flows and drives our economy and courses through our Nation. Sometimes people even forget it is there binding our country together at the community level, connecting our Nation from coast to coast, and ensuring our superior defense posture globally.

Our Nation has made enormous strides in increasing our energy independence by developing a broad portfolio of power sources, with no bill more important than this one in reaching the strategic goal of energy independence for America's independence.

But it is not yet time to declare mission accomplished. Today, the price of oil is on the rise again, standing 50 percent higher than it was 1 year ago, due at least in part to unrest across our globe.

It is no secret that every time in recent history--and I am talking 40, 50 years--that fuel prices exceed $4 per gallon our Nation sinks into deep recession. Actually, energy can become a tourniquet that throttles economic growth, and rising fuel prices means our Nation could be headed there again.

So we must not lose sight of the ultimate goal of energy independence for American independence. Largely, thanks to the bipartisan budget agreement, the chairman has been able to provide increased funding levels to that end across much of our bill.

Turning to the water and waterway elements in our bill, all essential to human life, our bill significantly increases funding for the Army Corps of Engineers to ensure continued forward progress in all regions of our country across all project areas, including navigation and environmental restoration. All projects are job creators and benefit future economic growth and environmental improvement.

I am grateful for the chairman's continued partnership to address the Asian carp threat to our freshwater Great Lakes ecosystem, as well as for funding to keep our Great Lakes ports open to shippers, which drive economic investment in the Great Lakes region.

And, unfortunately, while the chair has been generous in the funding of most programs, the bill cuts over $400 million in funding from this year's levels for next year for some of the highest priorities to those of us on this side of the aisle.

Let me enumerate them: energy efficiency and renewable energy, where America is making great strides and nations like China seek to blunt our lead; transformational science driven by the highest level of research in our country, the advanced research and energy we call ARPA- E; and, finally, in the third important area of nuclear nonproliferation.

Those accounts should not be cut. They all exist within the Department of Energy budget.

These programs invest in new horizons to move our country and economy forward through innovation, creating jobs along the way. Think about this: Nearly 3.2 million Americans now work in clean energy industries alone. Those are jobs that didn't exist 35 years ago. Energy means jobs, and new energy systems means economic growth.

I remain troubled by the continued unsustainable spending in the Department of Energy's weapons program. Instead of working to rein in costs, just over a month ago, the administration submitted a budget amendment to begin work on a new, low-yield ballistic missile, as proposed in the Nuclear Posture Review. I remain unconvinced this new capability will actually improve our nuclear deterrent.

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Ms. KAPTUR. We owe it to the American people to have a full discussion and debate before wandering down a path to new varieties of nuclear weapons, including security, cost, and schedule.

The bill, again, includes several unnecessary and controversial policy riders, everything related to the Waters of the United States to new language legislating an ongoing court case in the northwest. I ask my colleagues to vote no when I offer an amendment to eliminate all of them.

One of our biggest concerns is the damage this bill does to other bills. It is like musical chairs: if we succeed with our bill, then the 11 bills that follow may not have sufficient funding.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman for leading us to this point. We are very proud to be the first bill on the floor this year, 2018, in the appropriations process.

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of my fellow Great Lakes colleague's amendment and thank him for raising the issue.

I think the Great Lakes have finally arrived at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. As the gentleman knows and as I have made clear to the Corps, our Great Lakes Members and myself are very supportive of the proposal for a Great Lakes Coastal Resiliency Study.

The study will take an inclusive view of how to make our coastline more resilient, with an eye toward using more sustainable, green, or natural infrastructure to reduce runoff, mitigate erosion and flooding, and protect property. This approach will ultimately save money as the Corps looks to fulfill its mission in the face of changing environmental hazards.

And I have to say, over my many years of service, we finally have at the Corps not just civil engineers, we have environmental engineers. We have raised a new generation of Americans who understand the relationship between structures and the environment. It is a new day at the Corps, and nobody welcomes it more than this Member.

Mr. Chair, I want to thank the gentleman for offering this amendment, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I rise to strongly support Congresswoman Tsongas' amendment.

In our country today, there are 12 wind projects in various stages of development, spanning 10 States off the east, west, and Texas coasts and, of course, in the Great Lakes as well. These offshore projects alone represent over 5,000 megawatts of potential offshore development. We don't have a kilowatt to waste.

These projects can create thousands of manufacturing, construction, and supply-chain jobs across our country and drive billions of dollars of local economic investment.

We know we will need workers to do these clean energy jobs. And I can guarantee you those towers are very high. So I definitely support funding for training activities in this regard for the future.

The Department of Energy already has workforce training grants for solar, and, therefore, I would very much wish to carry over that effort as well to the Wind Power Technologies Office.

Mr. Chairman, I congratulate the gentlewoman for offering this important amendment, and I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, as the designee of Ranking Member Lowey, I move to strike the last word.

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to point out that, if one looks at the fine print in our bill, the account, actually, for fossil is increased by over $50 million over the current year. That is a pretty healthy increase.

We are not really cutting anything in that bill if we take the funds that you are offering here. Fossil will still see a $30 million increase over this year. It isn't being cut to the bones or anything like that. In fact, we are adding flesh to the bones of the fossil accounts.

I think it is important to support the Beyer-Eshoo-Esty proposal here in this amendment because we are creating the future with ARPA-E. Nobody knows what ARPA-E means in the average neighborhood of our country. It really is not just the moonshot; it is the Mars-shot. It is the highest level of energy research we do.

When I saw Members from Massachusetts down on the floor here a little earlier, I thought to myself: When I saw the Russian tanker come in last year with natural gas because parts of the East Coast couldn't heat their homes in the wintertime, I have to tell you, I am worried. Every American should be worried.

We should be developing energy on many fronts. An all-of-the-above strategy is exactly what this country should be doing. We shouldn't be peeling away funds for the highest level of research that we do in our Nation.

Truly, ARPA-E helps us become a global leader. It is transformational in what it does. It is a model for others to imitate. It is smart, it is agile, it is fast-acting, it is nonbureaucratic, and it is bold-- qualities that both Republicans and Democrats like.

Last year, actually, many Republican officials and business leaders, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said ARPA-E is a blueprint for smart Federal investments that boost our global competitiveness. And surely it does, because I can remember a time when America was not running its way to energy independence. It was, in fact, completely dependent on imported sources of energy.

ARPA-E has been nothing short of remarkable. One hundred and thirty- six projects have attracted over $2.6 billion in private sector follow- on funding. I repeat: private sector.

While I do support fossil--and Ohio is a State right now where we have a lot of coal, we have a lot of natural gas. We even have some oil being brought up with the natural gas. I support all that. But we know one thing about that: it is finite. It is not going to be there for future generations.

ARPA-E leads us into a new future, and this amendment moves us in the proper direction.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support the Beyer-Eshoo-Esty amendment.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment, even though I am not opposed to it.

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chair, I rise to support my good colleague, Congressman Keating, and his amendment dealing with spent nuclear fuel.

We need a solution all across our country to spent nuclear fuel stored on dozens and dozens of sites across our country.

We thought we had a solution. $14 billion has been invested in the Yucca Mountain facility, and yet because of opposition from those who were not consulted in Nevada before that site was constructed, our Nation has been at a standstill. So I want to compliment the gentleman from Massachusetts for bringing up this issue.

Northern Ohio, a vast region that I and other Ohio Members represent, has more than one nuclear power plant that is faced with spent nuclear fuel onsite.

We know that the Department of Energy is doing tremendous work in this arena, very fine work, but we simply can't continue to just keep talking about this. We actually have to begin to store fuel in a much safer way.

This amendment would build on the work that DOE has been doing to continue to invest in such a critically important area as spent nuclear fuel and its permanent storage.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support the Keating amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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