Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. ROSEN. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of our amendment, which strikes a provision in this bill that would prohibit the future closure of the Yucca Mountain project.

This extreme language severely undercuts any opportunity to pursue viable alternatives for Yucca Mountain, including job-creating alternatives that OMB would be required to study under my bill, the Jobs, Not Waste Act.

Even worse, this language we're seeking to strike would essentially prevent another community that consents to storing nuclear waste from being considered as the nation's nuclear repository--effectively closing the door to safer, more viable sites and forcing Nevada to become the sole dumping ground for nuclear waste we never even generated.

Based on DOE's own studies, Yucca Mountain is unfit as a repository site for nuclear waste because of the impact it would have on national transportation.

This bill throws evidence-based policy making out the window in a narrow-minded effort to force Nevada into being a nuclear waste dump.

Instead of spending billions more in hard-earned taxpayer money on this project that's destined to fail and that will inevitably put families across the country at risk, let's leave the door open to forward-thinking alternatives for Yucca Mountain.

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