Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2014

Floor Speech

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Ms. TITUS. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

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Ms. TITUS. Mr. Chairman, I rise to speak in support of this amendment as well, which would strike language from the bill that mandates more wasteful spending on the defunct Yucca Mountain project and would redirect the funding to the Office of Science High Energy Physics program to support research in reducing nuclear waste.

The bill requires that DOE spend $25 million on activities at Yucca Mountain, located less than 100 miles from one of the Nation's most popular tourist destinations.

Now, let me remind you that the Department of Energy has already wasted $15 billion on this project with nothing to show for it but a big hole in the ground in the desert. In fact, had the Department of Energy not terminated the Yucca project in 2010, we would be throwing away at least another $67 billion with no guarantee that the project would ever be completed or functional.

All of this, let me remind you again, despite findings by the GAO that over the past 20 years the proposed site has suffered from gross mismanagement, faulty science and research, and contract violations. Even more troubling to the people of Nevada and those living along the transportation route, questions about the safety and design of the site and its impacts on the

surrounding environment and populations have never, never been satisfactorily addressed.

Yet, while cutting ARPA-E, which is vital to our competitiveness in the global economy, stripping investments in energy efficiency, and renewable energy development, this legislation mandates that millions be squandered in an effort to restart a boondoggle that has been doomed from the start.

Now, why, I ask you, are we throwing good money after bad ideas? We should not be turning back the clock, we should be moving forward. So I would say to my colleagues, please support this amendment. It will eliminate economic waste and allow Congress instead to have a proper discussion about how to dispose of the Nation's nuclear waste.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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Ms. TITUS. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

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Ms. TITUS (during the reading). Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to dispense with the reading.

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Ms. TITUS. Mr. Chairman, I rise tonight to ask my colleagues to join me in protecting the fiduciary interests of the American taxpayer and in preserving the safety of my constituents in southern Nevada as well as of all of those who live along the proposed route for Yucca Mountain waste.

My amendment would remove misguided language included in this bill that injects politics into a very serious and consequential debate surrounding the issue of nuclear waste disposal. This amendment would simply strike the language included in this bill that tries to restart the failed Yucca Mountain project by prohibiting the DOE from moving forward with plans to close Yucca Mountain and develop proposals for its alternative use.

When the Department of Energy made the correct decision to put an end to the misguided Yucca Mountain project in 2010, they did so after decades of debate with nothing to show for it except for $15 billion wasted and a big hole in the ground. According to the Government Accountability Office, had the project been completed, it would have cost more than $80 billion. Those figures don't even take into account the cost of transporting 75,000 metric tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste thousands of miles across the country, through nearly every State in the Union.

Now, this waste wouldn't just magically appear in Nevada. It would travel through many of your congressional districts--through backyards all across the country, near schools, homes, parks, and businesses--nor does this enormous cost figure account for the significant security expenditures required to protect the contents of Yucca Mountain from those seeking to cause our Nation harm.

Mr. Chairman, if a nun with a pair of bolt cutters were able to break into one of the most secure nuclear facilities in the world, how can we ever expect to protect all of the Nation's waste in just one location?

Let's not forget that Yucca Mountain is less than 100 miles from one of the Nation's largest cities that hosts more than 40 million visitors a year.

In January of 2012, the Department of Energy's bipartisan Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, led by former Congressman and 9/11 Commission Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton and former National Security Advisor Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft stated in its final report: ``The need for a new strategy is urgent.''

The key concept here is ``new,'' but, instead, this bill tries to turn back the clock, back to an old, flawed strategy. It's Groundhog Day here in the United States House of Representatives.

On the subject of Yucca, Congressman Hamilton stated: ``Nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain is not an option.''

General Scowcroft said the Commission will ``look forward, not back.''

It appears that that message didn't make it all the way up the steps of the Capitol and that some Members of Congress have not gotten the message that Yucca is dead.

We cannot continue to throw good money after bad ideas and go down the same failed path that Congress put us on when politics targeted the people of Nevada in the development of the Yucca Mountain project decades ago.

Although I don't agree with everything that's included in the bill, I applaud the bipartisan group of Senators who have introduced legislation to enact the recommendations of the Commission and have an actual debate that doesn't target communities like Nevada.

I urge my colleagues to join me in support of this amendment. It's time to have a serious debate over the safe disposal of the Nation's nuclear waste and develop an alternative plan that doesn't throw away billions of taxpayer dollars, endanger citizen safety, or threaten economic development projects in southern Nevada.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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Ms. TITUS. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

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