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[Page: H3649]  GPO's PDF

   Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

   Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as may consume.

   Mr. Chairman, I would encourage at the outset of my remarks all of the Members of the body to support the energy and water appropriation bill. I would also at the outset note that the long-standing Alabama and Indiana connection, as they call it, that was established many years ago by Mr. Bevill from Alabama and Mr. Myers from Indiana, has now been reestablished on that particular subcommittee.

   I want to very sincerely thank the gentleman from Alabama (Chairman CALLAHAN) for his leadership on the subcommittee. He has been a leader. He has been trusting of all of us on this subcommittee. He has been open, he has been fair, and he has been decisive. He has put together a very good work product in a bipartisan fashion, and I strongly support it.

   I also do want to thank all of the members of the subcommittee, who have worked so hard also to put this legislation together.

   Last, I want to especially thank those who have done the work, the staff: Bob Schmidt, Jeanne Wilson, Kevin Cook, Tracy LaTurner, Paul Tumminello; the personal staff of the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. CALLAHAN), Mike Sharp and Nancy Tippins; and our side of the aisle, David Killian, Richard Kaelin, and Jennifer Watkins, a former staffer. I do appreciate the work that the staff has done.

   The President asked for $1 billion worth of cuts for the programs represented by this legislation; and under the leadership of this subcommittee, those cuts have essentially been restored.

[Time: 14:00]

   We are $187 million over the current year level, that is less than a 1 percent increase, but this bill does meet critical demands faced in the infrastructure and energy arena by our Nation. I am particularly happy that as far as water infrastructure , there is a $591 million plus-up in this bill, and some of the other attributes I would mention is the increase in environmental funding over the administration request. This funding increase is essential to achieving long-planned program milestones, assuring compliance with the law, and avoiding unnecessary stretch-outs that could simply lead to higher costs.

   I am also very happy that in the nonproliferation accounts, we have increased the amount over the President's request by $71 million, and the current bill now has $774 million contained therein. I also think it is important for all of my colleagues to understand that the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. CALLAHAN) indicated during markup that he plans to conduct a hearing in July relative to this issue and all of the needs as far as our concern over the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the materials thereto. I look forward to joining him to ensure that these critical programs get the scrutiny and the attention that they deserve, and I also wish to commend especially the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) for his leadership on this issue.

   The bill also provides $733 million for renewable energy resources, and that, again, is an increase of $100 million over the administration's request.

   This is a very good bill, but at the conclusion of my remarks, I would just make a couple of points about our underinvestment in infrastructure in this Nation. I do regret, through no fault of anyone on the subcommittee, that I believe we are still $10 million short as far as the Army Corps of Engineers regulatory budget, as far as making sure that the Corps can efficiently and without delay proceed with their regulatory burden. I regret that we were not fully able to fund that account, but we have included it at the administration's request. Additionally, it should be understood that the Corps asked for $6 billion because they felt that was, in fact, the national need.

   As far as water , we have $4.468 billion contained in the bill. At this rate, unfortunately, authorized projects by this Congress will increase, that have not been started, from $38 billion this year to $40 billion in the next fiscal year. We will see the Corps' backlog of critical maintenance increase from $450 million this year to $864 million next year. However, I would point out in the supplemental, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. CALLAHAN) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. YOUNG) did agree to plus up critical maintenance as far as dams under the Army Corps critical control by $23.7 million last week. They certainly recognized the need.

   The Corps last year in testimony before the subcommittee also indicated that to proceed as efficiently as possible and in as economical fashion as possible, they really needed about another $700 million a year for those existing authorized projects that we are already providing funding for, and, clearly, there is a shortfall.

   The last category I would touch on is water infrastructure , primarily sewers. This body, the other body and the administration combined over the last several years have authorized 202 sewer programs, only 44 of which are actually funded, 22 percent. The needs and requests are about $2.5 billion, and, again, I do think we have a shortfall in this country. The American Society of Civil Engineers and the U.S. EPA would indicate that to simply bring up existing infrastructure for clean drinking water , we would have to expend an additional $11 billion for wastewater, $12 billion. Clearly, the resources as far as the allocations do not exist.

   Mr. Chairman, the chairman has done an exceptional job with the resources we were given. This is a very good bill. However, I do think the administration and the Congress someday, whether it is water or other economic infrastructure , has to face the fact that we need to invest more money.

   Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

   Mr. CALLAHAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. YOUNG), the chairman of the full committee, and the gentleman who is responsible for marshalling all 13 of these appropriation bills through this body and through the conference.

   Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I wanted to congratulate the chairman of this subcommittee. He and the ranking member have done an outstanding job in bringing disagreements together to agreements. They have a good bill. There will be some differences that we will be discussing here later this afternoon, but they have done a really good job. They have worked together very well in a good bipartisan fashion, and they have produced a bill of which both the chairman as well as the ranking member can be very proud. The staff of the subcommittee, too, have done yeoman's work.

   I take this little extra time, Mr. Chairman, to say that one of the conversations that we will probably have this afternoon will have to do with energy. We have enough problems with energy because of our heavy reliance on foreign sources. We have problems with those foreign sources on occasion. We cannot afford to have any energy wars here at home with each other. So we need to be careful how we approach all of these issues so that we do not get into a battle with ourselves over energy.

   A major industrial Nation like the United States, which is a large consumer of energy, must also understand the importance of producing energy, because if we totally rely on energy sources from abroad, we will find ourselves in real tight spots on occasion, which we do on occasion.

   So when we get to those issues later today, let us understand that we are all on the same team, and that we are not going to start any energy wars between one section of the country and another; that we are going to work together to work out what is right and best for the people of the United States of America, who are energy consumers.

   But again, I wanted to say that the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. CALLAHAN), the chairman of the subcommittee, has done a beautiful job with this bill with the help of the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. VISCLOSKY), and it deserves the support of the Members of the House. I hope that we can do that expeditiously and move on to other matters.

   Mr. Chairman, we will be filing the Agriculture Bill this afternoon and hopefully will have it on the floor tomorrow. The subcommittees have marked up two more appropriations

[Page: H3651]  GPO's PDF

   Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD), a valued member of the subcommittee.

   Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Mr. Chairman, I rise for the purpose of engaging in a colloquy with the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. CALLAHAN) on the subject of security procedures at the Department of Energy headquarters.

   Members of this House were appalled when they learned about the incident involving our colleague, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. WU), at the Department of Energy headquarters a few weeks ago. The gentleman from California had been invited by DOE to be a guest speaker at a celebration honoring the contributions of Asian Pacific Islander Americans to this country. But when he arrived at DOE headquarters, he was refused admittance and asked three different times whether he was an American citizen, even after producing an official card identifying him as a Member of Congress.

   An Asian American aide accompanying the gentleman from California (Mr. WU) was also refused admittance, despite producing a congressional identification card.

   As the representative of the 33rd Congressional District of California, I am proud to represent an active community of Asian Pacific Islander Americans in Los Angeles. Understandably, we were very upset at this incident and the implication of discrimination by an official government agency.

   I, therefore, want to take this opportunity to thank the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. CALLAHAN) for including language in our report expressing the committee's concern about this incident and asking DOE to examine its security procedures in light of it.

   Mr. CALLAHAN. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

   Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. I yield to the gentleman from Alabama.

   Mr. CALLAHAN. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate very much the gentlewoman's interest in this matter, and I know that we are all concerned about this incident. As the gentlewoman has requested, we have directed DOE to reconsider its security procedures and to report back to us.

   Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for providing me with this opportunity to report to our colleagues on how we have responded to this disturbing incident. I very much appreciate the gentleman's willingness to work with me to ensure that DOE's security procedures are not only effective, but that they are also in keeping with our American values against discrimination.

   Mr. CALLAHAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN), a member of our subcommittee, and a very important member of our subcommittee.

   (Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

   Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

   Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the energy and water appropriations bill for this year. Let me thank first the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. CALLAHAN), the chairman of the subcommittee, for his leadership on our subcommittee's work, and to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. VISCLOSKY), the ranking member, for his bipartisan approach to our bill, and my thanks to the subcommittee staff for their tireless efforts in putting this bill together.

   The gentleman from Alabama (Mr. CALLAHAN) has produced a bill that ensures our Nation's continued commitment to work in partnership with our States and local communities to address such vital needs as flood control, shore protection, environmental restoration, and improving our Nation's many waterways. By doing so, we are helping meet our critical economic, environmental and public safety needs in virtually every State in the Nation, and we are doing so in keeping with our 302(b) allocation, which means we are working within the confines of a balanced Federal budget.

   As the chairman can attest and has attested, there are many more requests for funding than our budget allocation can provide for. The No New Start policy contained in this bill is difficult, but very necessary. We are focusing our limited dollars on ongoing projects that are on schedule and on budget.

   The chairman deserves special recognition for rejecting forthright the proposition that we should change in midstream the Federal Government's funding formula commitments to these ongoing projects. For more than 170 years, the Federal Government has worked in partnership with our States and local communities to provide solutions to critical flooding, dredging and environmental problems, as well as beach and shore protection. In my home State of New Jersey, these projects have kept our port of New York and New Jersey open for business, and prepared us for the future of bigger ships.

   I want to thank the chairman in particular for his strong support of dredging for our port, and with this bill we are helping to keep 127 miles of our beaches in my State open for visitors from around the country and around the world. This is a $30 billion industry of tourism for our State . It employs over 800,000 people.

   Finally, to help protect people, their homes and businesses from the ravages of flooding, we are helping to purchase wetlands for natural storage areas, and we are working alongside local governments in Somerset and Morris Counties and elsewhere to develop long-term solutions to keep people safe and our communities whole in the event that floods reoccur, and they will.

   Let me also address part of our bill which provides funding for the Department of Energy. Here we have focused our critical dollars on the central programs where the Federal Government can truly make a difference. I especially want to thank the chairman for his support of $248 billion for the fusion program and $25 million for laser research. In the President's national energy plan, fusion energy was actually highlighted as having the potential to serve as an inexhaustible and an abundant clean source of energy. The President's energy plan suggests that fusion should be developed as a next-generation technology, and I agree.

   Finally, let me say a word about funding for the renewable energy resources, since they are a focus of so much public attention. Let us be clear. Everyone supports renewables, and we fund these programs at $376 million. In fact, in the 7 years I have served on this subcommittee, we have invested over $2.2 billion in renewable energy. This year's added funding maintains our commitment to renewables.

   Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

   Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Chairman, I would simply follow up on the colloquy that the gentlewoman from California and the gentleman from Alabama had and would note that the committee directs the Secretary to report back by September 1 of this year in anticipation of the conference. So I do appreciate the chairman's cooperation.

   Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. SABO).

   Mr. SABO. Mr. Chairman, I thank my colleagues for including in the bill a $4 million increase for transmission reliability and to direct the Department of Energy to initiate field-testing of advanced composite conductors. I just want to clarify that these additional funds will be used explicitly for Aluminum Matrix Composite conductors; is that correct?

   Mr. CALLAHAN. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

   Mr. SABO. I yield to the gentleman from Alabama.

[Time: 14:15]

   Mr. CALLAHAN. The gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. SABO) is correct.

   Mr. SABO. Reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman from Alabama for his response.

   Mr. CALLAHAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. GARY G. MILLER).

   Mr. GARY G. MILLER of California. Mr. Chairman, I would like to inquire about a provision in the Committee Report. In title III, describing the Committee's funding priorities for the Department of Energy's Energy, Biomass,

[Page: H3652]  GPO's PDF

   With regard to this California project, I ask the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. CALLAHAN) is it the same effort proposed by the Inland Empire Utilities Agency in cooperation with the dairies located in the Chino Dairy Preserve?

   Mr. CALLAHAN. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

   Mr. GARY G. MILLER of California. I yield to the gentleman from Alabama.

   Mr. CALLAHAN. The gentleman from California is correct.

   Mr. VISCLOSKY. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards), a member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.

   Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this important legislation, and I would like to speak about both its process and its product.

   Regarding the process in developing this bill, I want to commend the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. CALLAHAN), who is not new to a position of being chair in this House, he is not new to the subcommittee; but this is his first term as a chairman of this subcommittee. Through his leadership, working with the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. VISCLOSKY), the ranking member, this was truly put together on a fair and bipartisan basis with the intention of what is good for the country in different regions of the country, not what is good for one party or another.

   Mr. Chairman, I regret sometimes that the amount of press attention to legislation in Washington is inversely proportional to the importance of that legislation and how well it is handled. There may not be a lot of coverage of this today in many parts of the country, because it was done on a bipartisan basis without squabbling and infighting.

   In terms of the product of this bill, I rise to speak about it because many people in this House and throughout the country do not pay a great deal of attention to the work of this subcommittee, especially because much of its work is designed for prevention, flood prevention and nuclear proliferation prevention.

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