Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016
Floor Speech
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Ms. TITUS. Madam Chairman, I come to the floor today on behalf of the people of Nevada to ask my colleagues to reject the failed policies of the past and concentrate our efforts on real solutions to the Nation's energy challenges.
The bill before us appropriates $150 million for the failed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste project. Taxpayer-funded junkets and photo ops cannot change the fact that this project has never been based on sound science but, instead, stems from targeted politics.
After decades squandered and $15 billion wasted, we are no closer to a solution than when President Reagan signed the ``Screw Nevada'' bill in 1988. Yet, today, the House is set to consider legislation that will waste millions more on this failed project.
Now, I have heard my colleagues say this is the law of the land. Well, the ACA is the law of the land, and that hasn't stopped them from trying to overturn it 57 times. Furthermore, it appears that although this is the so-called law of the land, the interpretation of that law is pretty flexible.
I want to bring my colleagues' attention to a particular line in this bill that appropriates $5 million for units of local government to support Yucca Mountain. This simply creates a slush fund to pay off local governments in return for their support of this failed project.
I don't anticipate that many of my colleagues are as familiar with the Nuclear Waste Policy Act as we are in Nevada, but the law clearly states that any benefits that the Federal Government may appropriate can only be provided through mutual agreement between the Federal Government and the State. Last time I checked, Republican Governor Brian Sandoval, not the House Appropriations Committee, is the chief executive of the State of Nevada, and he strongly opposes Yucca Mountain.
Madam Chairman, I will submit for the Record an op-ed written by Governor Sandoval and former Governor Richard Bryan, titled ``Yucca Mountain: Unsafe site won't ever be safe for nuclear waste.''
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Ms. TITUS. Also, the committee's report language sites that this hush money is provided for local governments that give ``formal consent.'' This raises yet another question about the intent of this section. The law does not outline any process for giving formal consent, so how would the newly bribed localities be able to provide that consent?
If you are looking for consent, I urge you to support H.R. 1364, the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act, which I introduced, along with my colleague Congressman Heck and Senators REID and HELLER. This bipartisan legislation sets out a formal consent process so that Nevada or Texas or New Mexico or any other State and affected local community or tribe that chooses to host a nuclear waste depository will have a process by which it can give consent for siting by the Federal Government. No community should have to face what we in Nevada have faced for the last few decades of having this pushed down our throat.
Madam Chairman, I will also submit for the Record two articles outlining nuclear waste storage proposals that are supported in the State of Texas and the State of New Mexico.
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Ms. TITUS. So I would say, Madam Chairman, instead of wasting tens of millions of dollars more on an unworkable solution, let's, instead, meet our fiduciary obligations to future generations. At the same time, let us commit to moving forward on a new policy to address the Nation's nuclear waste, one that relies on a consent-based system that doesn't force waste on communities like mine, which is the recommendation of the Blue Ribbon Commission.
So I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and send a message that Congress will not continue to move backwards but will take serious action to address our Nation's nuclear waste policy.
Madam Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
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