Conference Report on H.R. Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I will include my complete remarks for the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to say how thankful I am for Chairman Frelinghuysen and Ranking Member Lowey for their leadership on this bill, and for all the subcommittee chairmen and ranking members on both sides of the rotunda for the work they have done to complete this bill.

Mostly, I want to thank the staff that the chairman has already thanked for the hard work they did. Most people don't realize that, when we are at home in August, they are here working hard every day, sometimes all night long, trying to come up with a compromise that maintains our House priorities.

I think they have done a good job in this. It meets the NDAA requirements that were passed in the House and the Senate, and it meets the requirements of the Nuclear Posture Review and other things. So they have done a great job protecting House priorities.

We didn't get everything we wanted in this bill. The Senate didn't get everything they wanted in the bill either. That is kind of the nature of a compromise. But this is a good bill. It should pass. It is our first step in restoring regular order, and I want to thank everybody who has been involved in creating this.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the conference report for H.R. 5895, the fiscal year 2019 Energy and Water Development, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act.

Before I get into the details of the bill, I would like to thank several Members involved in this effort--my Ranking Member, Marcy Kaptur; our Senate partners, Lamar Alexander and Dianne Feinstein; our full committee leadership, Chairman Frelinghuysen and Ranking Member Lowey here in the House and Chairman Shelby and Ranking Member Leahy in the Senate; and all the conferees who participated in producing this final product.

I'd like to assure my colleagues that the House conferees on this minibus worked diligently to ensure that House priorities were well represented in the final package. The Energy and Water bill totals $44.64 billion, which is $1.44 billion more than last year's level. Increases over last year are targeted to those areas where they are needed most to provide for our national defense and to support our nation's infrastructure.5895, the Fiscal Year 2019 ilitary Construction

The conference report reflects the House priority of strong support for the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons security programs, including Weapons Activities, Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation, and Naval Reactors. It aligns with the Administration's Nuclear Posture Review, or NPR, which calls for maintaining a strong nuclear deterrent to meet the challenges of a changing security environment, revitalizing the nuclear complex, and supporting effective arms control and nonproliferation efforts. Since the NPR was released after the budget submission, the House worked hard to ensure funds above the budget request were included for critical NPR recommendations.

Overall funding for the national nuclear security programs totals $15.23 billion--an increase of $560 million above the fiscal year 2018 enacted level and $138 million above the President's budget request. Within this amount, $65 million is provided to support the NPR's recommendation to pursue a lower-yield ballistic missile warhead to enhance the credibility of our nuclear deterrent and $1.07 billion is provided to address the growing backlog of deferred maintenance and to recapitalize aging nuclear weapons infrastructure. Also within this amount, the budget request for Naval Reactors is fully funded, an increase of $169 million above fiscal year 2018, to support the Navy's nuclear propulsion program.

The conference report provides funding increases across the Department of Energy to defend against cyber attacks and to strengthen energy sector cybersecurity preparedness, response, and recovery.

Addressing our nation's critical infrastructure needs is another House priority strongly reflected in the final conference report. Funding for the Army Corps of Engineers totals $7 billion. Harbor Maintenance activities are funded at $1.55 billion, which is $150 million more than fiscal year 2018. The level exceeds the WRDA annual target and represents 92 percent of estimated revenues compared to the fiscal year 2019 target of 77 percent established in WRRDA 2014.

Within the Bureau of Reclamation, the bill provides an additional $343 million for water conservation and delivery projects, including $134 million for water storage projects authorized under the WIIN Act and $99 million for rural water projects.

The bill advances an ``all-of-the-above'' energy strategy that will support a strong national economy well into the future. Specifically, the bill promotes innovation and growth in nuclear energy, funding research, development, and demonstration activities at $1.2 billion, an increase of $108 million above fiscal year 2018. Research to advance coal, natural gas, oil, and other fossil energy technologies is funded at $740 million.

Basic science research funding totals $6.6 billion, $325 million more than last year. Increased funding will advance U.S. leadership in high performance computing and improve science research infrastructure at our national laboratories.

Finally, the conference report registers the grave concerns of many Members of Congress over judicial interference in the operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System hydroelectric dams.

All in all, this appropriations package, including the Energy and Water division, is a strong bill that incorporates many high priorities of the House. I urge my colleagues to support it.

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