Pete Domenici

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague, Senator Dorgan, to introduce a bill to reauthorize and expand two very important public health programs created by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997; The Special Diabetes Program for Indians and the Special Funding Program for Type I Diabetes Research. I want to thank my colleagues, Senator Inouye, Senator Baucus, Senator Collins, Senator Lincoln, Senator Hatch, and Senator Bingaman for joining us as original cosponsors of this bill. This type of bipartisan support clearly shows that addressing this disease and its consequences is an important health priority for our Nation. Diabetes is one of the most serious and devastating health problems of our time. The American Diabetes Association estimates that 20.8 million Americans have diabetes; more than 7 percent of our population. The number of U.S. adults with diagnosed diabetes has increased by more than 60 percent since 1991 and is projected to more than double by 2050. It ranks as the sixth leading cause of death in America. This has serious national implications; it is overwhelming health systems in the states and the Nation. Although diabetes occurs in people of all ethnicities, the diabetes epidemic is particularly acute in our Native American populations. Among some tribes, as many as 50 percent of the adult population have the disease. That is why during the negotiations on the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, I helped craft an agreement to finance diabetes programs of the Indian Health Service and help raise the profile of tribal health programs. The Special Diabetes Program for Indians began with funding of $30 million annually for 5 years and was later expanded to $150 million a year. This funding has been used widely in Indian country, including among the Navajo Nation and the 19 Pueblos in New Mexico. Federally supported treatment and prevention programs are showing real results in the Native American populations. The current funding has established almost 400 new diabetes treatment and prevention programs in Native communities. It has helped to provide critical resources such as medications and therapies, clinical exams, screenings, and resources to prevent complications. It has provided primary prevention activities such as physical fitness programs, medical nutrition therapy, wellness activities, and programs that target children and youth. The experiences of these programs have provided many important lessons learned that will benefit other minority communities and all people affected by diabetes. Despite all the positive results we have seen from these efforts, there is still much more work to be done. I have traveled extensively on the Navajo reservation and other parts of Indian country and seen those who still need help. I have visited the dialysis centers and met with those who are suffering from the effects of this disease. Due to the prevalence of this problem, it will take years for us to achieve our ultimate goal of reducing and eliminating diabetes and its complications. But, unless Congress reauthorizes and expands this program, the funding for these efforts and activities will end next year. We can't let that happen. The Special Diabetes Program for Indians has made an enormous and substantial impact on the problem of diabetes in Indian communities. The loss of funding now would be devastating. We must continue to focus specific resources to address the epidemic of diabetes in the Native American communities. That is why the bill we are introducing today will reauthorize the Special Diabetes Program for Indians for an additional 5 years and increase the funding from $150 million to $200 million each year. This will provide a billion dollars over the next 5 years for this program, $250 million more than we are currently authorized to spend. Reauthorization of this vital program will help save lives. It is the right thing to do and it is a smart investment of our health care dollars. In addition to the reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians, this bill will also reauthorize another important tool in our battle against diabetes, the Special Funding Program for Type I Diabetes Research. Like the Indian program, this program is set to expire next year, and this bill will provide an authorization for an additional 5 years and increase the funding from $150 million to $200 million each year. The Type I Diabetes research program which was also created in 1997 Balanced Budget Act has allowed the Federal Government to make dramatic advances in research and treatment since its inception. This funding has helped support research into the identification of genes that increase susceptibility to diabetes. It has helped with the development of therapies that have helped slow the progression and in some cases even reverse the progression of this disease. And it has helped develop tools and methods that help people manage the disease long term. Again though, there is still much more work to be done. Continued investment in this program will help to maintain support for research that is truly helping those who are living with diabetes and help prevent the onset of diabetes in others. The Federal investment in research has produced tangible results that I believe justify its continued support. Diabetes is taking too heavy a toll on too many Americans and their families. Continued funding is vital to the continuation of our fight against diabetes. The prevention and treatment of diabetes has improved greatly over the past decade and I believe it is in large part due to the funding and research accomplished through these two programs. Complications of diabetes can be prevented and the costs of this disease to our society can be contained. Research, early detection and treatment, however, are the keys. I hope that Congress will join together to reauthorize these programs and also provide to them the increase in funding that they need to keep making advances. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague, Senator Dorgan, to introduce a bill to reauthorize and expand two very important public health programs created by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997; The Special Diabetes Program for Indians and the Special Funding Program for Type I Diabetes Research. I want to thank my colleagues, Senator Inouye, Senator Baucus, Senator Collins, Senator Lincoln, Senator Hatch, and Senator Bingaman for joining us as original cosponsors of this bill. This type of bipartisan support clearly shows that addressing this disease and its consequences is an important health priority for our Nation. Diabetes is one of the most serious and devastating health problems of our time. The American Diabetes Association estimates that 20.8 million Americans have diabetes; more than 7 percent of our population. The number of U.S. adults with diagnosed diabetes has increased by more than 60 percent since 1991 and is projected to more than double by 2050. It ranks as the sixth leading cause of death in America. This has serious national implications; it is overwhelming health systems in the states and the Nation. Although diabetes occurs in people of all ethnicities, the diabetes epidemic is particularly acute in our Native American populations. Among some tribes, as many as 50 percent of the adult population have the disease. That is why during the negotiations on the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, I helped craft an agreement to finance diabetes programs of the Indian Health Service and help raise the profile of tribal health programs. The Special Diabetes Program for Indians began with funding of $30 million annually for 5 years and was later expanded to $150 million a year. This funding has been used widely in Indian country, including among the Navajo Nation and the 19 Pueblos in New Mexico. Federally supported treatment and prevention programs are showing real results in the Native American populations. The current funding has established almost 400 new diabetes treatment and prevention programs in Native communities. It has helped to provide critical resources such as medications and therapies, clinical exams, screenings, and resources to prevent complications. It has provided primary prevention activities such as physical fitness programs, medical nutrition therapy, wellness activities, and programs that target children and youth. The experiences of these programs have provided many important lessons learned that will benefit other minority communities and all people affected by diabetes. Despite all the positive results we have seen from these efforts, there is still much more work to be done. I have traveled extensively on the Navajo reservation and other parts of Indian country and seen those who still need help. I have visited the dialysis centers and met with those who are suffering from the effects of this disease. Due to the prevalence of this problem, it will take years for us to achieve our ultimate goal of reducing and eliminating diabetes and its complications. But, unless Congress reauthorizes and expands this program, the funding for these efforts and activities will end next year. We can't let that happen. The Special Diabetes Program for Indians has made an enormous and substantial impact on the problem of diabetes in Indian communities. The loss of funding now would be devastating. We must continue to focus specific resources to address the epidemic of diabetes in the Native American communities. That is why the bill we are introducing today will reauthorize the Special Diabetes Program for Indians for an additional 5 years and increase the funding from $150 million to $200 million each year. This will provide a billion dollars over the next 5 years for this program, $250 million more than we are currently authorized to spend. Reauthorization of this vital program will help save lives. It is the right thing to do and it is a smart investment of our health care dollars. In addition to the reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians, this bill will also reauthorize another important tool in our battle against diabetes, the Special Funding Program for Type I Diabetes Research. Like the Indian program, this program is set to expire next year, and this bill will provide an authorization for an additional 5 years and increase the funding from $150 million to $200 million each year. The Type I Diabetes research program which was also created in 1997 Balanced Budget Act has allowed the Federal Government to make dramatic advances in research and treatment since its inception. This funding has helped support research into the identification of genes that increase susceptibility to diabetes. It has helped with the development of therapies that have helped slow the progression and in some cases even reverse the progression of this disease. And it has helped develop tools and methods that help people manage the disease long term. Again though, there is still much more work to be done. Continued investment in this program will help to maintain support for research that is truly helping those who are living with diabetes and help prevent the onset of diabetes in others. The Federal investment in research has produced tangible results that I believe justify its continued support. Diabetes is taking too heavy a toll on too many Americans and their families. Continued funding is vital to the continuation of our fight against diabetes. The prevention and treatment of diabetes has improved greatly over the past decade and I believe it is in large part due to the funding and research accomplished through these two programs. Complications of diabetes can be prevented and the costs of this disease to our society can be contained. Research, early detection and treatment, however, are the keys. I hope that Congress will join together to reauthorize these programs and also provide to them the increase in funding that they need to keep making advances. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation that I believe will place the Department of Energy's nuclear waste program back on track. I am joined by Senator Craig and others to introduce the Nuclear Waste Access to Yucca Bill, or Nu-Way Bill, which I believe will help to resolve the issue of nuclear waste once and for all. As we all know, the history of the Yucca Mountain project has been rocky at best. The Yucca Mountain project has a very long pedigree, starting back to the late 1950s when the National Academy of Sciences, NAS, reported to the Atomic Energy Commission that burying radioactive high-level waste in geologic formations should receive consideration. NAS stated that ``radioactive waste can be disposed of safely in a variety of ways and at a large number of sites in the United States.'' In 1982, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act after a solid consensus had been reached around the major elements of the approach broadly outlined by President Carter. When President Reagan signed it into law the following January, he called the Act ``a milestone for progress and the ability of our democratic system to resolve a sophisticated and divisive issue.'' The Congress was quite optimistic then, so optimistic that we told the Department of Energy, DOE, to enter into contracts with utilities to begin taking nuclear waste off their hands by 1998 in return for the payment of fees. Well, obviously that didn't happen, but the United States government continues to collect the fee at 1mil/KWH electricity generated by nuclear plants. What did happen was that the utilities began to sue DOE for failing to meet its contractual obligation to remove spent nuclear fuel from storage at commercial reactor sites. DOE has been negotiating with various reactor owners since 1999 over the missed deadline for settlement agreements. The first agreement was reached in July 2000 which allowed DOE to pay PECO Energy Co. up to $80 million in nuclear waste fee revenues during the subsequent 10 years. However, other utilities sued DOE to block the settlement, contending that nuclear waste fees may be used only for the DOE Waste Program and not as compensation for missing the disposal deadline. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit agreed that any compensation would have to come from general revenue or other sources than the waste fund. Today, commercial spent nuclear fuel continues to be stored at plant sites, and DOE is facing more than $6 billion in judgments for failure to dispose the spent nuclear fuel. As for the nuclear waste fund, we now have more than $19 billion of the ratepayer's money in principal and interest. In addition to civilian spent nuclear fuel, the Department of Energy stores about 2,500 metric tons of defense waste, which includes unreprocessed spent nuclear fuel from its plutonium production reactors, naval propulsion reactors, and research reactors at Hanford, Savannah River, and the Idaho National Laboratory. While moving more slowly than planned, DOE's nuclear waste program has made progress toward making the goal of a permanent geologic repository for nuclear waste a reality. Originally, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act required DOE to characterize more than one site for two repositories. As the most promising site considered, the Yucca Mountain site was selected by DOE to be the first site to be characterized. In 1987, the act was amended and the Congress directed DOE to focus its siting effort on Yucca Mountain alone and terminated the second repository program. On February 14, 2002, after carrying out the required ``appropriate site characterization activities'' at Yucca Mountain to determine its suitability, the President recommended Yucca Mountain to Congress as being ``qualified for application for a construction authorization for a repository.'' The Nuclear Waste Policy Act provided the Governor of Nevada the opportunity to object to the site selection and to submit to Congress the reasons. On April 8, 2002, the Governor of Nevada exercised this authority and submitted his notice of disapproval and statement of reasons. Under the terms of the Act, the Governor's notice had the effect of terminating further consideration of the Yucca Mountain site until both Houses of Congress passed and the President signed into law a joint resolution approving the site. The State veto provisions of the act accomplished their intent, which was to afford Congress another opportunity to review and determine if the objection was sufficient to terminate the program. Based on expert opinion, both Houses concluded that the objection was not sufficient, and that the Yucca Mountain site is geologically suitable for development of the repository. In the national interest, Congress approved the Yucca Mountain site, and instructed DOE to file a license application for the repository with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC. The decision has been made. All the scientific work performed to date supports the decision. With the siting decision made, it will now be up to the EPA to issue general standards and for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license the facility by evaluating the scientific data and determining whether the repository will permanently, and safely, isolate nuclear waste. Yucca Mountain is the cornerstone of our national comprehensive spent nuclear fuel management strategy for this country. Let me be clear: We need Yucca Mountain. We must make this program work. I believe the bill introduced today will do that. This bill will remove unintended legal barriers that will allow DOE to meet its obligation to accept and store spent nuclear fuel as soon as possible, without prejudging the outcome of the NRC's repository licensing decision. The bill I am introducing today authorizes DOE to permanently withdraw 147,000 acres of Federal land from public use currently controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, the Air Force, and the Nevada Test Site, to satisfy a license condition of the NRC. This legislation will repeal the arbitrary 70,000 metric ton statutory limit on emplacement of radioactive material at Yucca Mountain. The cap was imposed when Congress was considering two rounds of repositories. I believe that the capacity of the mountain should be determined by scientific and technical analysis, and not by political compromises. Today, the major facility at the Yucca Mountain site is an ``exploratory studies facility'' with a 25-foot-diameter, 5-mile long, tunnel with ramps leading to the surface. This legislation will allow the DOE to begin construction of needed infrastructure for the repository and surface storage facilities as soon as they complete an environmental impact statement that evaluates these activities. The ``Nu-Way'' bill also begins to consolidate the defense nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel from defense activities at the Yucca Mountain site. The bill requires DOE to file for a permit to build a surface receipt and storage facility at the Nevada Test Site at the same time it files its license application for a repository at Yucca Mountain. As soon as the department receives the permit for the surface receipt and storage facility from the NRC, it may begin moving defense fuel and waste to the Nevada Test Site. We are not giving DOE any new authority to move spent fuel. DOE currently has authority to transport and consolidate defense waste at DOE facilities, with the sole exception of Yucca Mountain site. The spent nuclear fuel from our Navy and defense activities that kept us safe during the Cold War should be consolidated and stored securely at the Nevada Test Site. The defense waste is currently stored temporarily in Hanford, Idaho and Savannah River sites. This legislation further provides that only after the NRC issues a construction permit for Yucca Mountain, may the Department of Energy begin moving civilian spent fuel to the Nevada Test Site. This legislation also lays the foundation to integrate Yucca Mountain Repository Program and Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, GNEP, by providing that before civilian spent nuclear fuel is shipped to Yucca Mountain, the Secretary of Energy must determine if it can be recycled within a reasonable time. I might add that the current plans for GNEP do not include recycling all 55,000 metric tons of civilian spent fuel that has already been generated. This proposal will would avoid moving waste to Yucca Mountain Site that should be shipped instead to a GNEP facility. In the long run, this measure provides DOE with the authorities needed to execute the Yucca Mountain project for long term emplacement and for the GNEP program to reduce the volume and toxicity of the material to be placed in the repository, thereby eliminating the need for a second waste repository. This bill will also withdraw land for a rail route Yucca, a vital transportation component. There is also a provision that provides that appropriations from the nuclear waste fund will not count against the allocations for discretionary spending. DOE will have access to the full funds in the nuclear waste fund, moneys collected from electricity rate payers, our constituents, specifically for developing and constructing the waste repository. To address the liability problem created by Congress when DOE could not remove spent nuclear fuel from the reactor sites, this legislation will authorize DOE to revise the standard contract to accept waste from new nuclear reactors at a more reasonable schedule. By doing all of these things, this bill will establish a comprehensive program that will provide confidence that our Nation's nuclear waste will be managed safely both for current and future reactors. The issue of Yucca Mountain has been addressed repeatedly by Congress and Presidents. The legislation I am introducing today will not circumvent any environmental standards or regulations, nor will it preempt any State or local government rights. Despite the great advances that we have made in this Nation on nuclear energy, we are still faced with challenges. EIA estimates that even with a projected increase in nuclear capacity and generation in large, the nuclear share of total electricity is estimated to fall from 19 percent in 2005 to 15 percent in 2030. This is because our energy needs will be great over the next 25 years. For energy security reasons, economic reasons and environmental reasons, we must make nuclear energy a larger part of our mix. To meet the challenge of reducing carbon emissions in order to address climate change, we need nuclear energy. And, if we need nuclear energy, we need Yucca Mountain. Solving nuclear waste is in the national interest. We can solve this problem and I hope we can move forward together in a new way.

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation that I believe will place the Department of Energy's nuclear waste program back on track. I am joined by Senator Craig and others to introduce the Nuclear Waste Access to Yucca Bill, or Nu-Way Bill, which I believe will help to resolve the issue of nuclear waste once and for all. As we all know, the history of the Yucca Mountain project has been rocky at best. The Yucca Mountain project has a very long pedigree, starting back to the late 1950s when the National Academy of Sciences, NAS, reported to the Atomic Energy Commission that burying radioactive high-level waste in geologic formations should receive consideration. NAS stated that ``radioactive waste can be disposed of safely in a variety of ways and at a large number of sites in the United States.'' In 1982, Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act after a solid consensus had been reached around the major elements of the approach broadly outlined by President Carter. When President Reagan signed it into law the following January, he called the Act ``a milestone for progress and the ability of our democratic system to resolve a sophisticated and divisive issue.'' The Congress was quite optimistic then, so optimistic that we told the Department of Energy, DOE, to enter into contracts with utilities to begin taking nuclear waste off their hands by 1998 in return for the payment of fees. Well, obviously that didn't happen, but the United States government continues to collect the fee at 1mil/KWH electricity generated by nuclear plants. What did happen was that the utilities began to sue DOE for failing to meet its contractual obligation to remove spent nuclear fuel from storage at commercial reactor sites. DOE has been negotiating with various reactor owners since 1999 over the missed deadline for settlement agreements. The first agreement was reached in July 2000 which allowed DOE to pay PECO Energy Co. up to $80 million in nuclear waste fee revenues during the subsequent 10 years. However, other utilities sued DOE to block the settlement, contending that nuclear waste fees may be used only for the DOE Waste Program and not as compensation for missing the disposal deadline. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit agreed that any compensation would have to come from general revenue or other sources than the waste fund. Today, commercial spent nuclear fuel continues to be stored at plant sites, and DOE is facing more than $6 billion in judgments for failure to dispose the spent nuclear fuel. As for the nuclear waste fund, we now have more than $19 billion of the ratepayer's money in principal and interest. In addition to civilian spent nuclear fuel, the Department of Energy stores about 2,500 metric tons of defense waste, which includes unreprocessed spent nuclear fuel from its plutonium production reactors, naval propulsion reactors, and research reactors at Hanford, Savannah River, and the Idaho National Laboratory. While moving more slowly than planned, DOE's nuclear waste program has made progress toward making the goal of a permanent geologic repository for nuclear waste a reality. Originally, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act required DOE to characterize more than one site for two repositories. As the most promising site considered, the Yucca Mountain site was selected by DOE to be the first site to be characterized. In 1987, the act was amended and the Congress directed DOE to focus its siting effort on Yucca Mountain alone and terminated the second repository program. On February 14, 2002, after carrying out the required ``appropriate site characterization activities'' at Yucca Mountain to determine its suitability, the President recommended Yucca Mountain to Congress as being ``qualified for application for a construction authorization for a repository.'' The Nuclear Waste Policy Act provided the Governor of Nevada the opportunity to object to the site selection and to submit to Congress the reasons. On April 8, 2002, the Governor of Nevada exercised this authority and submitted his notice of disapproval and statement of reasons. Under the terms of the Act, the Governor's notice had the effect of terminating further consideration of the Yucca Mountain site until both Houses of Congress passed and the President signed into law a joint resolution approving the site. The State veto provisions of the act accomplished their intent, which was to afford Congress another opportunity to review and determine if the objection was sufficient to terminate the program. Based on expert opinion, both Houses concluded that the objection was not sufficient, and that the Yucca Mountain site is geologically suitable for development of the repository. In the national interest, Congress approved the Yucca Mountain site, and instructed DOE to file a license application for the repository with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC. The decision has been made. All the scientific work performed to date supports the decision. With the siting decision made, it will now be up to the EPA to issue general standards and for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license the facility by evaluating the scientific data and determining whether the repository will permanently, and safely, isolate nuclear waste. Yucca Mountain is the cornerstone of our national comprehensive spent nuclear fuel management strategy for this country. Let me be clear: We need Yucca Mountain. We must make this program work. I believe the bill introduced today will do that. This bill will remove unintended legal barriers that will allow DOE to meet its obligation to accept and store spent nuclear fuel as soon as possible, without prejudging the outcome of the NRC's repository licensing decision. The bill I am introducing today authorizes DOE to permanently withdraw 147,000 acres of Federal land from public use currently controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, the Air Force, and the Nevada Test Site, to satisfy a license condition of the NRC. This legislation will repeal the arbitrary 70,000 metric ton statutory limit on emplacement of radioactive material at Yucca Mountain. The cap was imposed when Congress was considering two rounds of repositories. I believe that the capacity of the mountain should be determined by scientific and technical analysis, and not by political compromises. Today, the major facility at the Yucca Mountain site is an ``exploratory studies facility'' with a 25-foot-diameter, 5-mile long, tunnel with ramps leading to the surface. This legislation will allow the DOE to begin construction of needed infrastructure for the repository and surface storage facilities as soon as they complete an environmental impact statement that evaluates these activities. The ``Nu-Way'' bill also begins to consolidate the defense nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel from defense activities at the Yucca Mountain site. The bill requires DOE to file for a permit to build a surface receipt and storage facility at the Nevada Test Site at the same time it files its license application for a repository at Yucca Mountain. As soon as the department receives the permit for the surface receipt and storage facility from the NRC, it may begin moving defense fuel and waste to the Nevada Test Site. We are not giving DOE any new authority to move spent fuel. DOE currently has authority to transport and consolidate defense waste at DOE facilities, with the sole exception of Yucca Mountain site. The spent nuclear fuel from our Navy and defense activities that kept us safe during the Cold War should be consolidated and stored securely at the Nevada Test Site. The defense waste is currently stored temporarily in Hanford, Idaho and Savannah River sites. This legislation further provides that only after the NRC issues a construction permit for Yucca Mountain, may the Department of Energy begin moving civilian spent fuel to the Nevada Test Site. This legislation also lays the foundation to integrate Yucca Mountain Repository Program and Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, GNEP, by providing that before civilian spent nuclear fuel is shipped to Yucca Mountain, the Secretary of Energy must determine if it can be recycled within a reasonable time. I might add that the current plans for GNEP do not include recycling all 55,000 metric tons of civilian spent fuel that has already been generated. This proposal will would avoid moving waste to Yucca Mountain Site that should be shipped instead to a GNEP facility. In the long run, this measure provides DOE with the authorities needed to execute the Yucca Mountain project for long term emplacement and for the GNEP program to reduce the volume and toxicity of the material to be placed in the repository, thereby eliminating the need for a second waste repository. This bill will also withdraw land for a rail route Yucca, a vital transportation component. There is also a provision that provides that appropriations from the nuclear waste fund will not count against the allocations for discretionary spending. DOE will have access to the full funds in the nuclear waste fund, moneys collected from electricity rate payers, our constituents, specifically for developing and constructing the waste repository. To address the liability problem created by Congress when DOE could not remove spent nuclear fuel from the reactor sites, this legislation will authorize DOE to revise the standard contract to accept waste from new nuclear reactors at a more reasonable schedule. By doing all of these things, this bill will establish a comprehensive program that will provide confidence that our Nation's nuclear waste will be managed safely both for current and future reactors. The issue of Yucca Mountain has been addressed repeatedly by Congress and Presidents. The legislation I am introducing today will not circumvent any environmental standards or regulations, nor will it preempt any State or local government rights. Despite the great advances that we have made in this Nation on nuclear energy, we are still faced with challenges. EIA estimates that even with a projected increase in nuclear capacity and generation in large, the nuclear share of total electricity is estimated to fall from 19 percent in 2005 to 15 percent in 2030. This is because our energy needs will be great over the next 25 years. For energy security reasons, economic reasons and environmental reasons, we must make nuclear energy a larger part of our mix. To meet the challenge of reducing carbon emissions in order to address climate change, we need nuclear energy. And, if we need nuclear energy, we need Yucca Mountain. Solving nuclear waste is in the national interest. We can solve this problem and I hope we can move forward together in a new way.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague Senator Obama to introduce the Veterans' Mental Health Outreach and Access Act. This bill will require the Secretary of Veteran's Affairs to establish a program for the provision of readjustment and mental health services to veterans who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, with a particular emphasis on those soldiers who served in the National Guard and Reserves. Operation Enduring Freedom, OEF, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, OIF, are unique in their extensive use of National Guard and Reserve troops and their reliance on repetitive deployments. More than 1,500 National Guard and Reservists from New Mexico have been deployed in support of OIF and OEF. Several hundred of these soldiers have been deployed multiple times. This is a new era for our National Guard and for the Reserve. The role of these organizations in defending our national security has significantly increased. Guard and Reserve members are seeing significant combat action and we know that a number of these soldiers will return with mental and physical wounds suffered in these wars, including post traumatic stress disorder, depression, brain injuries and other traumatic illnesses. Virtually all returning veterans and their families will face readjustment problems. These soldiers and their families deserve the best care and treatment possible, but where do our National Guard and Reserve soldiers fit into the military and veterans' systems of care? These ``citizen-soldiers'' are not returning to military bases, but rather to communities that are frequently remote from VA medical centers and clinics. We're quick to urge that VA provide veterans needed treatment for service-related mental health problems, but we also need to do more to remove the barriers such as travel and distance that oftentimes will prevent a veteran from seeking and continuing treatment. The Domenici- Obama bill calls on the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to develop a national program to reach vets who can't or won't seek VA care. It requires the Secretary to mount a national program to train a cadre of returning servicemembers for positions as peer outreach workers and peer-support specialists. In any remote area of the country in which the VA determines there is inadequate access to a VA medical center, the bill directs the Secretary of the VA to contract with community mental health centers and other qualified entities to provide peer outreach and support services, readjustment counseling and mental health services. However, any resulting contracts would require centers to first train and adhere to the VA's expertise and standards of care in mental health. It also will require any contract-provider to hire a trained peer specialist as well as have its clinicians participate in a training program to be certain they'll provide ``culturally competent'' services. This bill also gives needed attention to the toll these military operations have on the mental health needs of our veterans' families. These deployments are causing great stress for the spouses and children of these soldiers. Yet despite the recognition of the mental health needs of the family members of the returning veterans, current law limits the ability of the VA to work with these family members. This bill will expand access to mental health services for the immediate family of the veteran so that they may help the veteran recover in the case of injury or illness incurred during deployment. It will also help expand access to services so that the family can better help the veteran adjust back to civilian life, and also help the readjustment of the family to the return of the veteran. Lastly, this bill will extend the eligibility for health care services from the Department of Veterans Affairs for veterans who served in combat from 2 years to 5 years. Two years is often insufficient time for symptoms related to PTSD and other mental illness to manifest. In many cases, it takes years for symptoms to present themselves, and the difficulty is often compounded by the fact that many servicemembers do not immediately seek the care that they need. Five years provides a more adequate window to address these risks. Outreach and access to treatment are essential to prevent readjustment problems for our returning veterans and their families. Left untreated, mental disorders like PTSD and depression can become chronic and debilitating. We need systems in place to ensure that OEF/ OIF veterans who are returning to their homes have access to the services they need. It is my hope that this legislation will help close the gaps we currently have in our service delivery systems and provide help to those who have experienced mental health problems as a result of their service to their country. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise today with my colleague Senator Obama to introduce the Veterans' Mental Health Outreach and Access Act. This bill will require the Secretary of Veteran's Affairs to establish a program for the provision of readjustment and mental health services to veterans who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, with a particular emphasis on those soldiers who served in the National Guard and Reserves. Operation Enduring Freedom, OEF, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, OIF, are unique in their extensive use of National Guard and Reserve troops and their reliance on repetitive deployments. More than 1,500 National Guard and Reservists from New Mexico have been deployed in support of OIF and OEF. Several hundred of these soldiers have been deployed multiple times. This is a new era for our National Guard and for the Reserve. The role of these organizations in defending our national security has significantly increased. Guard and Reserve members are seeing significant combat action and we know that a number of these soldiers will return with mental and physical wounds suffered in these wars, including post traumatic stress disorder, depression, brain injuries and other traumatic illnesses. Virtually all returning veterans and their families will face readjustment problems. These soldiers and their families deserve the best care and treatment possible, but where do our National Guard and Reserve soldiers fit into the military and veterans' systems of care? These ``citizen-soldiers'' are not returning to military bases, but rather to communities that are frequently remote from VA medical centers and clinics. We're quick to urge that VA provide veterans needed treatment for service-related mental health problems, but we also need to do more to remove the barriers such as travel and distance that oftentimes will prevent a veteran from seeking and continuing treatment. The Domenici- Obama bill calls on the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to develop a national program to reach vets who can't or won't seek VA care. It requires the Secretary to mount a national program to train a cadre of returning servicemembers for positions as peer outreach workers and peer-support specialists. In any remote area of the country in which the VA determines there is inadequate access to a VA medical center, the bill directs the Secretary of the VA to contract with community mental health centers and other qualified entities to provide peer outreach and support services, readjustment counseling and mental health services. However, any resulting contracts would require centers to first train and adhere to the VA's expertise and standards of care in mental health. It also will require any contract-provider to hire a trained peer specialist as well as have its clinicians participate in a training program to be certain they'll provide ``culturally competent'' services. This bill also gives needed attention to the toll these military operations have on the mental health needs of our veterans' families. These deployments are causing great stress for the spouses and children of these soldiers. Yet despite the recognition of the mental health needs of the family members of the returning veterans, current law limits the ability of the VA to work with these family members. This bill will expand access to mental health services for the immediate family of the veteran so that they may help the veteran recover in the case of injury or illness incurred during deployment. It will also help expand access to services so that the family can better help the veteran adjust back to civilian life, and also help the readjustment of the family to the return of the veteran. Lastly, this bill will extend the eligibility for health care services from the Department of Veterans Affairs for veterans who served in combat from 2 years to 5 years. Two years is often insufficient time for symptoms related to PTSD and other mental illness to manifest. In many cases, it takes years for symptoms to present themselves, and the difficulty is often compounded by the fact that many servicemembers do not immediately seek the care that they need. Five years provides a more adequate window to address these risks. Outreach and access to treatment are essential to prevent readjustment problems for our returning veterans and their families. Left untreated, mental disorders like PTSD and depression can become chronic and debilitating. We need systems in place to ensure that OEF/ OIF veterans who are returning to their homes have access to the services they need. It is my hope that this legislation will help close the gaps we currently have in our service delivery systems and provide help to those who have experienced mental health problems as a result of their service to their country. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, may I ask how much time we have on our side?

Mr. DOMENICI. And on the other side?

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I yield myself the 11\1/2\ minutes we have remaining.

Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, might I first say how good it is to see the Senator from Colorado in the chair as debate on this first crucial vote on this bill winds down. Because while sitting in the chair and presiding is a functional part of the Senate's normal operation, in this debate, for the Senator from Colorado and this Senator from New Mexico, it means a little more than that. My neighboring Senator, the new Senator from Colorado, has indeed spent a great deal of time and effort and applied some very good common sense, when others were not applying it, to this bill. He has done more than his share to see to it that we arrived here today at this point and can move ahead with a very difficult bill, with some very difficult propositions being put forth, and I commend him for that. Let me say to those who are listening, I still want, at some point before we close debate, probably within the next 5 or 6 or 8 days, to talk to the Senate about my family and the whole history of how we got here--how we survived the immigration laws, which were very complicated 50 or so years ago when I was a little kid. They were so complicated that my mother was arrested by the Federal Government because they said she was not a citizen. She was arrested right in front of all of us children, only to find out there were some technical problems with her efforts to become a citizen. We had to sit there and watch her march off, as some people talk about happening to them today. But today I want to talk about where we are with a complicated bill and what should happen tonight. First, many Members worked hard and long with two Cabinet members to weave together a very interesting bill to manage illegal aliens and aliens who want to come to this country to get ahead, as my folks did when they got on a boat and went to France and ended up in Albuquerque from the little town of Lucca in northern Italy. They came and followed the laws of that day. Others want the same thing. The important thing to know is that relevant laws, and what has happened to immigrants, and how those laws have been applied to those people, is in shambles. Americans know that. Every day they tell us about something happening on the border, and then they remind us of those things because they are very upset and angry citizens. And what they are upset about is that we have a body of laws but those laws aren't being enforced because we are right up alongside some countries that are poor and whose people want to work and make more money than they can make at home by getting over here and getting a job. Everybody should understand that the big problem here is the problem of economics. People from Mexico and other countries in or near this continent want to make a living and they can't make a living at home. Things are in disarray because that big force, that economic force, drives these people who have families they want to send money to, who are trying to get away from starvation. That is pushing everything into the ground and pushing people from what they should do to what they are doing, and lo and behold, there is a huge illegal immigration problem everywhere you turn. In putting the pieces together, those who wrote the bill we have before us decided that, among all of the pieces, we needed to have a legalized temporary worker piece to this American fabric of a bill that will control guest workers henceforth. When we are finished, we will have a law that works against and in favor of, depending upon who you are and what you are doing, and will regulate the law applying to guest workers and undocumented aliens. There is no question, according to those who worked so hard on this bill, that we need a temporary worker component in the bill. So they put it in there. It is a 2-year program. You get a special card, and you can work for 2 years as a temporary worker and then you must go home for a year. This is a temporary worker permit. It is different from anything else in the bill. Those who worked so hard to piece the bill together so that it would work said: Among the things we have, let's make sure we have a temporary worker permit. This is not for agricultural workers only, and anybody who thinks it is does not know what is happening in America. The illegal aliens are working in all kinds of jobs. It would shock you to know what industries. If this bill works and these undocumented workers turn themselves in, we are going to have a great big shock in America when we find out who these individuals are, what they do, where they work and how they make a living. When those 10 to 12 million Americans show up and agree that they want to take a chance on America, that will be one phase of this bill. But even after that is finished, we will decide tonight whether there will be room for the next 50 years, or until we change it, for new people to come here and take a place as temporary workers in the United States, as described and defined, for 2 years, and then they must go home. They must stay home a year and then come back. Do we want that? Those who have worked hard on this bill say a resounding: Yes, we do. We need it. It is part of the entire panorama of the pieces of the bill, and taken all together, we ought to vote aye and this part of the bill ought to stay intact. That will be the first indication tonight that we understand that those who worked hard to put this bill together deserve our confidence regarding this very important piece of legislation for temporary workers. I hope everybody who is interested in a good law will keep this piece in the bill tonight when they vote. With that, I understand there are others who might want to speak on our side. I had the remaining time because no one was here, but since Senator Specter is here, I am going to yield. Whatever that does for him, I am glad to do it. I yield back any time I have. I yield the floor.

Mr. DOMENICI

Mr. DOMENICI. Madam President, will the Senator yield?

Mr. DOMENICI. I wanted to ask unanimous consent that the time from now until the vote be allotted to the Senator from Florida and to the senior Senator from New Mexico and that there is no time remaining on the Democrat side, unless Senator Kennedy wants some of my time.

Mr. DOMENICI. So I ask unanimous consent that the remaining time be allotted to the two of us and, if necessary, we can allot time to somebody else.

Mr. DOMENICI. I thank the Senator for yielding and thank him for all the hard work he has put into this bill.

Mr. DOMENICI. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Florida for his dedicated work on this bill and for his efforts heretofore a couple of years ago, when he worked very hard on this issue. We didn't have success, but maybe this bill, in spite of all the early talk against it, may succeed. Maybe with some amendments and some work it may become the new law with reference to illegal aliens for the United States of America. It is good enough for America. It is sufficiently clear for America. It will clear up the status of the 10 to 12 million undocumented aliens who live here. It will clear that problem up. Everywhere you look, we have let the problems of illegal aliens grow out of all proportions. It is a hard job to put a bill like this together. It is not easy. It is one of the most difficult jobs you can have to put legislation together to try to fix the last 15 years of letting our laws be ignored. We have not cared about them, letting the borders become porous, letting millions of people in illegally, which has caused all kinds of problems. But I can tell you, if you look at this bill carefully and you don't look at it with any preconceived ideas or ideology, but look at it and ask: What are the practical problems and what are the practical solutions here? I submit that it comes close to solving these problems in the very best way possible. I am sorry I already heard this morning Senators talking for a very long period of time about why they are against this bill. In the end, I listened and, after listening, I concluded that most of them had it wrong. I don't like to say that about my fellow Senators, but they had it wrong on the major issues, which they said made up their mind to be against the bill. Let me tell you what is going to happen under this bill. Before anything else in this bill is used or implemented, our borders must be secure. Let me repeat: whatever you hear from Senators that this bill is going to do, none of those provisions are going to be implemented unless and until we have secured the border. I don't know how we can say it any clearer. Senator Kennedy and Senator Jon Kyl from Arizona, the leaders on each side on this issue with Senator Specter, maybe what you are going to have to do is pull the text of this bill that secures the border and distribute it to the Senators so they will have it right in front of them to see that there is a border security part of this bill. It is there. It says, before you can implement the other provisions of this bill, the border will be made secure. It doesn't stop there. It tells you what a secure border is. It says 18,000 Border Patrol agents must be hired. We are well on a path of getting them hired and trained. We can do this because we finally, for the last 3 years, we have been funding. We have been hiring thousands of them. But the bill says none of the bill's other provisions shall go into effect until the border is made secure. Then it says that secure means 370 miles of border fencing must be built. The Department of Homeland Security is committed to building 370 miles by December 31, 2008. We are being honest. We didn't have to say that date. We didn't have to talk about it. But we cannot get fencing built any sooner. So that period of time is going to have to be used before we do other things in the bill. The bill cannot change anybody's status this year because those provisions are dormant until the border is made secure. They are dormant. It also says 200 miles of vehicular barriers must be in place. It says 70 radar and camera towers must be on the southern border. It says four unmanned aerial vehicles must be in operation we have to leave undocumented aliens apprehended on the border in detention facilities to wait until they are deported. Right now if you don't have a place for them, the judges release them. That has been one of our problems. The bill has 27,500 detention beds to end the ``catch and release program'', which we are aware of, those of us who represent the border. You have to have all that done before the bill becomes operative. So if any one of those is not done, it is just like not having an immigration reform bill; isn't that correct?

Mr. DOMENICI. People say you are going to do immigration reform before the border is secured. How are we going to do that when the law says you throw the rest of the bill away until we have secured the border, and then it tells you what border security is? That has been worked on day and night. That has been done to try to calm so many thousands of people who have been indoctrinated to believe that the only thing we should do is make the border secure. So all they are going to ask you when you go home is: Did you secure the border, Senator? And, Senator, I heard from such and such that you didn't secure the border. Senators ought to carry around a piece of paper that has this border security provision on it, and you ought to take it out and read it to your constituents. They deserve the truth. They want the truth. We are not trying to do anything to hide what we did. We are trying to make sure they know it. I mentioned the name of a Senator from Arizona. He is not here, but Jon Kyl will be here tomorrow, so all the Americans out there will understand that Jon Kyl was one of the Republican who spent literally hundreds upon hundreds of hours as a dedicated leader on this issue, with Senator Kennedy on the other side. Senator Kennedy will acknowledge--if he hasn't already--that without Jon Kyl we could not have this proposal. People should know that Senator Kyl knew this was the chance of a lifetime for this great country. You could not get everything you wanted because there are other people playing. If you have 10 Senators working on it, and they are Democrats and Republicans and they each believe one thing or another, you have to come to a practical compromise. That is what it means to be a Senator who writes the law well. He works with his fellow Senators to come up with what they can use and do in a practical manner. That is what happened with this bill. It is practical, yet it is doable; and it is not only doable, it is right. If America accomplishes this bill in its totality, we will have made one of the largest changes for the better for the United States, and I don't think there is any doubt about that. It is tough, and it is going to be hard. I wish to talk about another provision, and then if Senator Specter is back and wants time, I will yield to him. This bill is difficult because everybody wants to know two things about this bill. There are other pieces, but there are two major questions. One is, did you secure the border, and I just talked about that because I am just like every other Senator. My telephone is ringing and most people want to know: Did you secure the border? Or they tell you that you did not secure the border and you have to be sure that you set them straight and they understand that you did secure the border. The money has been rolling in every year to secure the border, and it will be coming in again this year to get this work finished because if it can't get finished, the other provisions cannot be carried out. One of those other provisions is a brand new effort on the part of this great country to take 10 to 12 million aliens who live in our country, who live kind of as hideouts--they are everywhere and they are nowhere. Some live running from one place to another. Others have found a way with illegal cards to find their way into society. They are your neighbors with their kids going to school just like yours. We have decided, because the country has asked us to, that we have to do something about that 10 to 12 million people. For those who are interested, just ask your Senators about the bill as it is written, ask what we are going to do. We are going to tell those illegal aliens who are here working: If you want to take advantage of this law, you have to come forward and turn yourself in, and the United States will then begin to work with you on a path toward giving you a document that you can carry with you, that you can use to obtain work, and you will be legal 4 years at a time. The bill also says after 8 years of that process, you will have an opportunity to choose, if you want, to move in the direction of becoming a citizen. But you still have at least 5 years to wait, and you must return to your home country and file your application. You must pay another fine. You must learn English. That is the first time we have had that provision. And you must learn U.S. civics. All of that must happen: 8 years of work, make a choice to pursue citizenship, wait at least 5 more years for a total of 13 years, and then if you can pass the citizenship test, you can become a citizen if you so choose. You can choose another route and you don't have to become a citizen or ultimately you can go home. There might be many people who will do that. We don't know. Before I turn the time over to Senator Specter--and I don't have time--but my friends, a couple of Senators have heard me talk before about my family, average people who got involved with the laws of our land as immigrants. Madam President, how much time would Senator Specter like?

Mr. DOMENICI. It looks like we have 6 minutes. Is that what it is?

Mr. DOMENICI. I will take 4 minutes telling about my family, and Senator Specter can have the rest.

Mr. DOMENICI. I will be pleased to yield.

Mr. DOMENICI. Reserving the right to object.

Mr. DOMENICI. Madam President, I would normally not object, but I understand the leaders have set the time at 5:30 p.m. for the vote, and this request will extend the time. I don't think I have the authority to extend the time for a vote. Madam President, I ask Senator Kennedy, am I thinking right? I wasn't here when we agreed to take this up.

Mr. DOMENICI. It is at 5:30 p.m. we are going to vote.

Mr. DOMENICI. I have to object.

Mr. DOMENICI. That is fine. If the Senator from New Jersey has permission, he can come back and do that.

Mr. DOMENICI. Madam President, I wish to tell about both my parents who came to this country as aliens, but I don't believe in 3 or 4 minutes that I can do that adequately. So I will try to find another time in the next 5 or 6 days to tell you, Americans, who are listening, that you have a Senator whose parents were both born in a foreign country, whose parents came here as youngsters. It is a very interesting story because on my mother's side, she married my father after consultation with a lawyer about citizenship requirements. They were told that my mother was a citizen once they got married because my father was a citizen. He became a citizen because he served in the First World War. He came over right at the turn of the century and was drafted into the First World War. It turned out that the lawyer gave them wrong advice, and my mother was not a citizen. She raised her children here and lived here as a perfect model citizen. Then one day during the Second World War, she was arrested by several men who came in black cars to the back door while we four children were playing with marbles, or whatever we did. In came the people, the agents that work for the U.S., saying this lady was an illegal alien and she should be arrested. Of course, that was a shock, needless to say. My father came hurrying home from work and, guess what, the lawyer who had given him advice, my dad brought him along. He went over to his office and got him and said: You got us in this trouble, maybe you ought to come over and get us out. Sure enough, the lawyer was very upset. By evening, my poor mother was released because she had a good lawyer. A lot of people don't have that, and we know what happens to them under our laws. Next, I will tell you about my father and what happened to him. That will be the next episode, shall we say. For now, I yield the remainder of the time that we have to Senator Specter.