Senate Proceeding 07-28-09 on Jul 28th, 2009 :: 3:04:35 to 3:15:00
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3:04:32 to 3:04:54( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: mr. mccain: i thank the senator. the presiding officer: the se mr. bennett: have listened with interest to the statement by senator mc i rise with some responses to the comments that he has made which i hope w

3:04:35 to 3:15:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Robert Bennett

3:04:55 to 3:05:16( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: situation. senator mccain serves as the ranking member on the armed services committee with distinction and has just helped manage that bill through the floor, and in the armed services committee -- in the defense authorization bill, which he helped manage, there are

3:05:17 to 3:05:39( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: every defense program and there is a defense authorization bill that passes every year. if, indeed, we had a similar situation with respect to those items under the jurisdiction of this appropriations bill, i would be more supportive of the position that senatorccain has taken with respect to provisions of the bill.

3:05:40 to 3:06:01( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: however, this is not a defense bill and not authorizes each and every year the same way the department of defense does. indeed congress intended the department of energy to operate. when the department of energy was organized in 1977, making it one of the more recent departments of history, it

3:06:24 to 3:06:45( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: has resulted in two energy bills in the past four years. but you need to go back before the 2005 bill to find another energy bill passed by congress. so obviously the organic statute creating the department anticipated that there would be an organic authorization for

3:06:46 to 3:07:06( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: these items and they would be handled in the appro bills. if we passed senator mccain's amendment, it would eliminate any discretion of this subcommittee, of the congress, or of the congress itself, for that matter, to make changes in the department of energy's budget priorities or spending plans.

3:07:07 to 3:07:27( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: the appropriations committee would, therefore, become a rubber stamp for the administration's budget. since we do not pass something like the defense authorization bill and tr there is no corresponding authorization bill for the department of energy, we would simply take the president's proposal and pass

3:07:28 to 3:07:49( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: the money to support it, and i do not believe that's acceptable. senator mccain ran through a list of projects for which he had little or no patience beuse he said they did not understand them andhat struck him as being possibly -- he did not say

3:07:50 to 3:08:10( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: absolutely but possibly -- had questionable m i have a list of projects that were funded by the administration out of the blanket authority of what the congress gave him -- gave the secretary in what we call the stimulus act. we passed the stimulus act without any specific earmarks.

3:08:55 to 3:09:16( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: money. the mountain institute inc. in morgantown, west virginia, overcoming barriers to wind development in country. $99 million -- no, $99,000. then the west virginia division

3:09:17 to 3:09:37( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: of energy in charleston, wes virginia, overcoming the challenges in west virginia, $100,000. in austin, fund solutions for wind developers and bats. and for the board of trustees of

3:09:38 to 3:09:59( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: the united states of champagne, illinois, "are flying wildlife attracted to or do they avoid wind turbines?" kansas city university in kansas -- in "the environmental impacts of wind power development on population biology of greater

3:10:00 to 3:10:21( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: prai texas tech university in lubbock, texas, an assessment of lesser prairie chicken population distribution in relation to potential energy developments. and western ecosystems ecosystems technology inc in cheyenne, wyoming, $100,000 to study

3:10:22 to 3:10:47( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: greater sage and sage grass sell elm tristudy for the simpson range wind resource area. and finally in kalamazoo, michigan, the western michigan university receives study genetic approaches to understand the impact of wind energy development on

3:10:48 to 3:11:11( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: now, mr. president, say, may all be very worthwhe items. i don't think they're any more worthwhile items than the items we put in our bill. and would say to those who are in supportf the mccain amendment, if the mccain amendment passes, you take away from the congress the right to determine how this money is spent

3:12:17 to 3:12:39( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: does become if we passed the amendment that senator mccain has proposed, it would have a devastating impact on the department's environmental cleanup requirements. these are cleanup programs that receive annual authorization for cleaning up sites under the defense authorization

3:12:40 to 3:13:01( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: act, but it also has similar authorization on sites that are outside of theefense department. and included in this non-defense category are ongoing cleanups in the following let me repeat again, ongoing cleanups. these are not new starts. these are not come out of nowhere. these are items that are going

3:13:02 to 3:13:23( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: forward that have been authorized by past congresses under the organic sta department of energy. paducah, kentucky, portsmouth, ohio, national lab in tennessee, idaho national lab in idaho, brookhaven national lab in west valley, new york, santa suzanna

3:13:24 to 3:13:45( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: in california, hanford, washington, argonne national laboratory, illinois, and the los alamos national laboratory in new mexico. if i might focus on the one in moabb, utah, this is a cleanup of a uranium site where there was a

3:13:46 to 3:14:06( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: the boom times when we wer mining uranium as rapidly could, processed that uranium and left behind tailings that have been judged as being very damaging. these tailings were very close to the arizona -to the colorado river and, senator's own state of arizona

3:14:07 to 3:14:28( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: is downstream from this tailing site. by appropriating this money in this bill be outlawed by the senator's amendment, we are accelerating the cleanup process. and in this time difficulty, more jobs, more activity and, quite frankly,

3:14:29 to 3:14:50( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: lower anxious to gain work and will bid in lower than they would otherwise, it is a logical thing to do. it would be dropped from the bill if we proceeded with the senator's amendment. for

3:14:51 to 3:15:01( Edit History Discussion )

Robert Bennett: senator's mistake, and i would urge colleagues to vote it down.