John Shimkus

Mr. SHIMKUS

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton). (Mr. BARTON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. SHIMKUS. I yield the gentleman from Texas an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I am not closing yet. We are waiting for the majority whip. Mr. Chairman, I want to highlight a couple of issues, of course, that have been raised. In my brief opening statement I reminded the folks-- and I see my colleague from Chicagoland on the floor--Chicago gets 55 million visitors a year. In Chicagoland there are 10,000 metric tons. That is in the community, that is where there are condos, and it is right there. This proposed long-term repository is 90 miles away from Las Vegas. It is a mountain in a desert. If it gets approved, final adjudication. And what has held up the final adjudication? Politics on the appropriation matter, which I think this bill is going to help solve, because once we get a good vote--my colleagues, I don't think we voted on an authorization bill, on this issue on an authorization bill, since 2002. That is when the State of Nevada objected, per the law. They were allowed to do that. We had a chance, then, to override that veto. Because, as Mark Sanford said, this is a national problem that demands a national solution. So the law laid out an opportunity to hear the complaints from the State of Nevada and say ``yes'' or ``no.'' They said ``no.'' The law laid out the opportunity for the national legislative body and the President of the United States to decide to accept or reject that. I think this Chamber vote was about 350 to reject the State of Nevada's opposition. The Senate rejected it on a voice vote. So we have been through this numerous times. We know where the majority of Representatives are, and we know where the majority of Senators will be. We have just got to move. We have got to address this national problem with a national solution. Another issue that was just touched on by Chairman Walden, he spent a lot of time on it, is spent nuclear fuel. This is ratepayers also helping pay for our defense waste obligations. The nuclear weapons and winning the Cold War created stockpiles of nuclear waste, toxic sludge, in areas in four States primarily. Primarily, Washington State, also South Carolina. Ratepayers are going to help safely dispose of that. So when you take the national defense problem and the spent nuclear fuel problem, we are moving forward in that direction. Nevadans are not uniformly opposed to the repository. In fact, nine of the surrounding counties have passed resolutions to move forward, at least with the adjudication. And as my colleagues from Nevada know, I have been to that State quite a few times, and we talked to many, many people on this issue. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan).

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chair, I am going to have a lot of people wanting to come to the floor, so I will abbreviate my opening remarks and just address a few questions that are going to be raised. First, I just want to highlight the fact that you are going to hear a lot about local, consensus-based decisionmaking, and then you are also going to hear about closeness of proximity. This chart kind of highlights what we are talking about. The red is Federal Government land. The Federal Government land is larger than 31 countries on the Earth. You have three different sections. You have the national test and training range. You have the national security site. You have also some Fish and Wildlife/Interior land, bigger than many of our States in our Union. So, to my colleagues, I want to make sure they have in perspective the size of the area that we are talking about: bigger than the State of Connecticut and areas that people are going to talk about. That is one question that will be addressed. Another question will be the fear of tourism, because Las Vegas gets 42 million tourists a year, and they seem to be concerned that this might affect that industry. And then it dawned on me that the city of Chicago gets 55 million tourists a year--55 million--and they have over 10,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel in Chicagoland. So I want to make sure that my friends in Nevada understand that that should not be a terrible concern when Chicago seems to be doing well with tourism on that issue. Also, there will be a debate about transportation. I just want to call attention, Mr. Chairman, through you to my colleagues that we operate a nuclear Navy. That nuclear Navy has to have the power systems refueled. That means new nuclear fuel goes there. That means spent nuclear fuel goes off the nuclear Navy ships. That is on the ocean. That is either on the Atlantic Ocean or on the Pacific Ocean. This spent fuel goes to Idaho, which means that we transport, safely, spent nuclear fuel, and we have done it for decades. Those are the three main contentions you will hear with this bill. I am going to allow my colleagues to talk about all the great benefits of this bill. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Washington, DC, October 6, 2017. Hon. Rob Bishop, Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources, Washington, DC. Dear Chairman Bishop: On June 28, 2017, the Committee on Energy and Commerce ordered favorably reported H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017. This bill was additionally referred to the Committee on Natural Resources. I ask that the Committee on Natural Resources not insist on its referral of the bill so that H.R. 3053 may be scheduled for consideration by the Majority Leader. This concession in no way affects your jurisdiction over the subject matter of the bill, and it will not serve as precedent for future referrals. In addition, should a conference on the bill be necessary, I would support your request to have the Committee on Natural Resources represented on the conference committee. Finally, I would be pleased to include this letter and your response in the bill report and in the Congressional Record. Thank you for your consideration of my request and for the extraordinary cooperation shown by you and your staff over matters of shared jurisdiction. I look forward to further opportunities to work with you this Congress. Sincerely, Greg Walden, Chairman.

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the bill, H.R. 3053.

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Lance), who is on the committee, and has been doing great work to deal with his constituents.

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chairman, first of all, I want to also thank the staff on both sides for their work. This is the way legislation is supposed to move. You have hearings. In Energy and Commerce, we really have four: a subcommittee hearing markup, subcommittee markup, full committee markup, then we go through the process. So our staff has done a tremendous job. I also want to thank Ranking Member Pallone and Ranking Member Tonko for their friendship and their actually good negotiating skills. As they have told me many times, they have changed this bill through their diligence, and that has got us here to a better product. I will end up on three quick points. We have raised them before. We can transport this safely. We have done it for decades. Every day, taxpayers are paying from all 50 States into the Judgment Fund because of our failure to meet our legal obligations. I think it is almost $800 million a year that we pay because we are breaking the law. Independent scientific analysis of the Yucca Mountain repository found the site can safely dispose of nuclear waste for 1 million years. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Rothfus).

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Aderholt), a subcommittee chair of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. SHIMKUS

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, we had an administration that put a pause on that for about 8 years, and now we are ready to move forward again. We have got an administration that wants to fund the licensing process. I see my good friend from California (Ms. Matsui) is on the floor, and she has worked on interim; what do we do with the waste before we put it in the final repository? There are what I call dead plants--probably not the proper word--we have plants that are no longer generating electricity, but they have waste on site. Can't we consolidate those for the benefit of the Nation and get them away from some of our more pristine areas? The answer is ``yes.'' That is what we tried to with the bill. We are going to accept a couple amendments that have been brought forward by some Democrat colleagues on, I think, financing, or evaluation of the money and what do we do to the cities and how do we help them redevelop. And I will encourage my colleagues to support those when we have that debate. Mr. Speaker, I know it is not an easy process in the Rules Committee. This is a step to get it to the floor. I appreciate the kindness that was shown to me yesterday, and I look forward to joining with you all tomorrow.

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Rules Committee for bringing this bill to the floor tomorrow. I appreciate the due diligence they did on scrutinizing those amendments that could be additive to it and also the one from my colleague, Representative Titus, so we can really put aside this debate on a consensus-based issue because we need to help educate the American people. We need to help educate our colleagues. In the State of Nevada, 90 percent of all the land is owned by the Federal Government, and a big portion of that is at this location. When people say ``not in my backyard,'' we think they are talking about the Rayburn Building. Not in my backyard, in this debate, we are talking about Baltimore. But in between here and Baltimore, there is desert; and in the 60-mile radius is a fenced-in enclosure where we used to set off atomic weapons and groundbursts. So there is a place in this land that is called Yucca Flats, and some of us have seen that. Yucca Flats is where we did atomic testing. We need to make sure people understand this debate. Big area of land, Federal Government, really, the local consensus is us. It is the Federal Government. We are the landowners of this property. This is a tough decision. No one wants nuclear waste or defense waste. I am glad my colleague, Mr. Newhouse, is managing this bill, because I have been out to his location. In Hanford, we have a lot of defense waste there. So what are we trying to do? We will flesh this out more, obviously, tomorrow, but this issue is a multigeneration debate which we in this Chamber get a chance to move forward again after a long delay. This goes back to World War II. This goes back to the atomic age. This goes back to winning the Cold War. This goes back to our weapons programs. When that occurred, they said: Now we have got this technology; let's use it for civil electric generation. The government wanted to encourage that because we wanted to have nuclear scientists and we wanted to have energy generation, but we also wanted to have the experience and the expertise of nuclear scientists and engineers who could move back and forth from the private sector to the defense sector for our Nation's security, and, hence, we agreed. In 1982, we had to address the spent nuclear fuel at nuclear power sites and we had to address the defense waste that is predominantly in Congressman Newhouse's district, a lot of it in South Carolina. There is a little bit in New York. We have some left in Colorado. That is just the defense waste, not including the 39 States and 121 locations that have nuclear fuel--a national issue, a national concern, and we are moving forward to a national solution. In 1982, under the Reagan administration, they said: Well, how are we going to pay for this? So they decided to charge ratepayers who are using electricity that has been generated by nuclear power a fee, a fee-based system to help the industry find a location to store their spent fuel and for us to clean up the defense sites--pretty good proposal. Years later, they are trying to find the location. They do three analyses. Yucca Mountain was on the top three of these three. Then, as I will mention tomorrow, Senator Johnson and a guy named John Dingell said: Yucca Mountain, we need to move forward. So that was in 1987. Then we started generating the movement to get to a point where, under the law, the State of Nevada could say, ``We reject the proposal,'' which they did. The law then said the Federal Government could veto their objection, which we did.

Mr. SHIMKUS

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise before you today to recognize the 100th anniversary of the Saline County Homemakers Education Association. Since they first organized in 1918, members of the Saline County Homemakers have been devoted to improving the lives of women, children, families, and communities within their region. Through emphasizing the importance of the human and spiritual values of life, they have also sought to promote the development of positive role models and strong community leaders. Their programs and meetings have continued to provide Saline County residents with opportunities for friendship, personal growth, and community service. The Saline County Homemakers Education Association will be sharing their history with the community in a ceremony on Saturday, April 28 at the McKinley Baptist Church Education building in Harrisburg, Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I wish to send my congratulations to Saline County Homemakers Education Association for their continued success and dedication to their mission.

Mr. SHIMKUS

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Congressional Prayer Breakfast. Prior to its origination, many residents of Illinois had attended what was then called the St. Louis Mayor's Prayer Breakfast. I was invited myself to attend by Gary Tedrick, a local businessman who was involved with the sponsoring organization--CBMC. We then discussed hosting an Illinois version to be called the Congressional Prayer Breakfast. Upon conferring with Congressman Jerry Costello (D, Belleville), we agreed this would be a good thing to do. It would remind us of our common faith and that there is more that unites us than divides us. We ended up co-hosting the event for 14 years. Gary led the formation of the breakfast along with the help of David Stevenson, Mark Repking, Ted Prehn, and Stan Bower from the St. Louis chapter of CBMC, and Gary continues to lead it with the help of dozens of volunteers. People such as Bob Plummer and Scott Adams are original sponsors from the very beginning. We have heard from a wide range of speakers over the years, who tell their stories of the trials of life and faith, but all of them have had the same common belief in Jesus Christ. I want to thank former Congressmen Jerry Costello and Bill Enyart for co-hosting, as well as my current co-hosts, Congressmen Rodney Davis and Mike Bost. I also want to thank Steve Jankowski, who has served as our emcee for all 20 years. I want to thank the current steering committee members: Scott Adams, Mike Baese, George Weber, Dick Bold, Julie Lading, Bob Plummer, Larry Absheer, Gary Tedrick, Tony Kalinowski, David Stevenson, Tracy Bodenbach, Eric McRoy, and David Wiegand. In addition, I want to thank Bott Radio for broadcasting the breakfast for several years now. I want to thank R.P. Lumber in Edwardsville, Answer Midwest in Alton, and Larry's Hairy Business in Fairview Heights for hosting weekly discussion groups. My involvement in reaching the 20 year milestone for the Congressional Prayer Breakfast has been limited, and it would not have happened without the dedication of Gary and his team and the hundreds of attendees each year.

Mr. SHIMKUS

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise before you today to recognize Kaskaskia College as part of April's national Community College Month. Kaskaskia College provides high quality and affordable services to over 7,000 students every year. Students can receive distinguished Associate Degrees and skilled labor training to propel themselves forward in higher education and the work force. Kaskaskia College has doubled down on their mission to provide the most competitive education and technical training. KC has expanded access to their services through online programs, dual-credit courses, and six educational centers that complement their main campus. The services KC provides have become vital to the economic and educational growth in the communities it serves. Mr. Speaker, I wish to send my congratulations to Kaskaskia College's faculty, staff, and Board of Trustees for their continued success and dedication to their mission.

Mr. SHIMKUS

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the New Kingery Printing Company as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. New Kingery press, located in Effingham, Illinois, will mark this milestone by installing a new, state-of-the-art press. For many years to come, this dynamic, efficient, and cost-saving upgrade will give New Kingery the capacity to meet its customers' future needs. The press's new nonstop feeders are 50 percent faster than its predecessors', able to be fed either sheets or rolls, and can handle projects that require light-weight paper on up to heavier cardboard. With the new upgrades this family-owned and operated business, which specializes in catalogs, publications, marketing collateral and book production, will continue its tradition of providing great service and high quality work. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor for me to acknowledge Michael Kingery, who is a second generation president of New Kingery Printing Company, and all of the employees whose hard work and dedication has made New Kingery Press the success that it is today, and the success it will remain in the future. I wish the company all the best.

Mr. SHIMKUS

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the Highland High School varsity dance team, who are the 2018 Illinois High School Association Competitive Dance Class 1A champions. Highland won the title with a score of 95.08, making this the school's third dance team championship in a row. Highland ended the preliminary round with a three-point advantage and then secured the win by posting the highest team score of Head Coach Emily Wellen's tenure. The victory was especially exciting to seniors Olivia Genteman, Abigail Rogier, Kayla Davis and Katie Etter, who now claim the title of three- peat champions. I would like to congratulate the entire Highland dance team on their victory: Kayla Davis, Bree Etherton, Katie Etter, Alexis Finely, Paige Foster, Olivia Genteman, Kylie McFarland, Abbey Mortland, Claire Pabst, Abigail Rogier, Tatum Stock and Brooke Wilson, as well as Coach Wellen, on a superb end to a great season. Mr. Speaker, today it is an honor for me to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the Highland High School varsity dance team in winning the 2018 championship, and I wish the team, and their coach, all the best in the future.

Mr. SHIMKUS

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the 2018 Class 1A Illinois basketball champions the Okawville boys' basketball team. Okawville won the title game 59-48 thanks to a record breaking barrage of three-point shots, with Okawville making eight out of their 14 attempts. Behind the shooting of junior guard Wyatt Krohne, who scored 18 points to lead the team, Okawville seized its first ever state basketball title. With the game deadlocked at halftime, Okawville broke it open with a 19-point third quarter blitz that decided the outcome. Just as impressive as the team's third quarter offensive output was its stingy defense, which yielded a scant six points during the deciding stanza. I would like to congratulate the entire Okawville boys' basketball team on their victory: Payten Harre, Lucas Frederking, Caleb Frederking, Will Aubel, Jordan Green, Wyatt Krohne, Luke Hensler, Carter Killion, Drew Riechmann, Tyler Parsley, Tyler Roesener, Payton Riechmann, Lane Schilling, Tom Segelhorst, and Jackson Heckert, as well as Head Coach Jon Kraus, on a superb end to a great season. Mr. Speaker, today it is an honor for me to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the Okawville boys' basketball team in winning the 2018 boys' basketball championship, and I wish the team, and their coach, all the best in the future.

Mr. SHIMKUS

Mr. SHIMKUS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The EPA quote that Congressman Rothfus mentioned about they should deserve special consideration was not this EPA. In fact, it was authored by, in 2011, an EPA under the Obama administration, and the Administrator at that time was Lisa Jackson. So we are not, in today's world, saying these plants should have special considerations. We are in the last administration's world. And we just believe that that is correct. We believe that we have got to consider the benefits, and the benefits are remediation of these slag mounds, restoration of land, sometimes for recreational activities, protecting our water supply. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Rothfus), author of the bill.

Mr. SHIMKUS. Madam Speaker, I believe I have the right to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SHIMKUS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume before I yield to Mr. Rothfus just to get things straight here. Let's see. We can remediate environmental hazards by private sector dollars. I think that is good, saving the AML for other sites that can't use private sector dollars. We have a revenue stream to pay for that remediation. We have good-paying jobs and, as my colleague said, union jobs. I am from a coal-producing State everyone knows, deep southern Illinois. We have a local tax base to protect. Again, it protects the abandoned mine funds. When I was a young boy, I had a motorbike, and one of the places to ride which kind of scared me--I did it a couple of times--was on what we would call a slag hill. What is a slag hill? A slag hill is an abandoned mine refuse pile. So many of us have lived in and around these sites. This opportunity to take this and turn it into this, without taxpayer dollars, is a win. And the gentleman stole my line. The SENSE Act does make sense for jobs, for a tax base, for remediation, both in land and water, and protecting the abandoned mine funds to go to those sites that don't have a reclamation facility that can produce power and put it on the grid. So I am pleased to be down here and fighting with my colleague, Congressman Rothfus. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Rothfus).

Mr. SHIMKUS. Madam Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Rothfus), the author of the language.

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 762, I call up the bill (H.R. 1119) to establish the bases by which the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall issue, implement, and enforce certain emission limitations and allocations for existing electric utility steam generating units that convert coal refuse into energy, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on H.R. 1119.