WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) spoke on the House floor in support of the bipartisan bill, H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act, authored by Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), which passed the House earlier today with a vote of 340-72. This bill provides practical reforms to the nation’s nuclear waste management policy and establishes Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a permanent nuclear waste repository site so that nuclear waste will no longer sit idle across the country, including in Louisiana.
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Remarks:
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank my colleague from Illinois, Mr. Shimkus, for his leadership on this issue. For so long we have been trying to get a solution, and to get proper use made out of Yucca Mountain and the billions of dollars that ratepayers all across the nation have spent. And I rise in strong support of the bipartisan amendment, as well, that’s brought forward by the gentleman from Massachusetts to bring more light, to show the ratepayers of the country what is exactly happening with this nuclear waste fund.
“But the underlying bill is critical to our national energy strategy. For decades, going back to the 1980’s, this country, through Congress, established that there will be a national nuclear waste storage facility, and yet it’s gone unused. The money’s gone unutilized and there is no facility right now that’s working. We’ve got to make this work for the ratepayers all across the country who paid billions of dollars into this fund. We need a national repository for spent nuclear fuel. This bill finally achieves that.
“I congratulate my friend, Mr. Shimkus, for spending years finally getting us to a point where we can move this bill across the House floor and, hopefully, the Senate moves this bill to the president’s desk, so we can finally resolve this long-lasting issue that ratepayers all across the nation deserve an answer to. With that I yield back the balance of my time.”