The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS RESOLUTION, 2014” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H6497-H6502 on Oct. 11, 2013.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS
RESOLUTION, 2014
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 371, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 76) making continuing appropriations for the National Nuclear Security Administration for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 371, the joint resolution is considered read.
The text of the joint resolution is as follows:
H.J. Res. 76
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums are hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and out of applicable corporate or other revenues, receipts, and funds, for the National Nuclear Security Administration for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes, namely:
Sec. 101. (a) Such amounts as may be necessary, at a rate for operations as provided in the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (division F of Public Law 113-6) and under the authority and conditions provided in such Act, for continuing projects or activities (including the costs of direct loans and loan guarantees) of the National Nuclear Security Administration that are not otherwise specifically provided for in this joint resolution or in the Pay Our Military Act of September 30, 2013, that were conducted in fiscal year 2013, and for which appropriations, funds, or other authority were made available by such Act under the following headings:
(1) ``Weapons Activities''.
(2) ``Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation''.
(3) ``Naval Reactors''.
(4) ``Office of the Administrator''.
(b) The rate for operations provided by subsection (a) for each account shall be calculated to reflect the full amount of any reduction required in fiscal year 2013 pursuant to--
(1) any provision of division G of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (Public Law 113-6), including section 3004; and
(2) the Presidential sequestration order dated March 1, 2013, except as attributable to budget authority made available by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013
(Public Law 113-2).
Sec. 102. Appropriations made by section 101 shall be available to the extent and in the manner that would be provided by the pertinent appropriations Act.
Sec. 103. Unless otherwise provided for in this joint resolution or in the applicable appropriations Act for fiscal year 2014, appropriations and funds made available and authority granted pursuant to this joint resolution shall be available until whichever of the following first occurs: (1) the enactment into law of an appropriation for any project or activity provided for in this joint resolution; (2) the enactment into law of the applicable appropriations Act for fiscal year 2014 without any provision for such project or activity; or (3) December 15, 2013.
Sec. 104. Expenditures made pursuant to this joint resolution shall be charged to the applicable appropriation, fund, or authorization whenever a bill in which such applicable appropriation, fund, or authorization is contained is enacted into law.
Sec. 105. This joint resolution shall be implemented so that only the most limited funding action of that permitted in the joint resolution shall be taken in order to provide for continuation of projects and activities.
Sec. 106. Amounts made available under section 101 for civilian personnel compensation and benefits in each department and agency may be apportioned up to the rate for operations necessary to avoid furloughs within such department or agency, consistent with the applicable appropriations Act for fiscal year 2013, except that such authority provided under this section shall not be used until after the department or agency has taken all necessary actions to reduce or defer non-personnel-related administrative expenses.
Sec. 107. It is the sense of Congress that this joint resolution may also be referred to as the ``Nuclear Weapon Security & Non-Proliferation Act''.
This joint resolution may be cited as the ``National Nuclear Security Administration Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The bill shall be debatable for 40 minutes, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations.
The gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen) and the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey.
General Leave
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on House Joint Resolution 76, and that I may include tabular material on the same.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from New Jersey?
There was no objection.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present critical legislation that will ensure our Nation's nuclear security, the Nuclear Weapons Security and Nonproliferation Act, the joint resolution just mentioned.
This legislation continues funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration at the current level provided in fiscal year 2013 until December 15, or until full-year appropriations have been signed into law. There are no new anomalies and there is no special treatment, but continuing these activities without interruption is vital to our national defense.
The National Nuclear Security Administration is responsible for maintaining our nuclear deterrent, securing vulnerable nuclear materials around the world to keep them out of the hands of terrorists, and supporting our Navy's nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers.
Funds will be used to keep the doors open so our scientists and engineers can keep our nuclear arsenal at the ready and our nuclear fleet operating efficiently.
{time} 0915
These vital programs keep our country safe and secure and require well-trained, dedicated personnel.
So far, these high-priority national security missions have been sustained during this shutdown by operating off prior-year funding. While most of the Department of Energy's science and energy laboratories have enough carryover funding to operate through November, the national security laboratories and stockpile production sites of the NNSA are not in that same position.
This week, the NNSA sites began notifying workers that they would be shutting down as early as October 17 to preserve remaining funds for essential functions like protecting nuclear materials. By the end of the month, 90 percent of the personnel at our nuclear weapons sites may be laid off, halting work to keep our nuclear weapons reliable. Once laid off, some of these vital workers may never return.
Suspending an ongoing nuclear production operation is no simple task. That interruption will lead to higher costs and only make it more difficult to maintain an aging stockpile. We must act now to prevent disruption of these important nuclear security activities.
We must also sustain the critical work the NNSA's nonproliferation experts perform overseas. Despite hopeful press reports, Iran has not turned off its centrifuges; North Korea may have restarted its reactors to make more plutonium; and the Russian and Chinese Governments continue to build nuclear-armed ballistic submarines.
The technical expertise provided by our nuclear security experts is essential to our Nation's ability to monitor and respond to international developments such as these. We simply cannot afford to lose this oversight of nuclear weapons and their potential for proliferation.
Finally, our nuclear deterrent relies on the mission of our submarines, the very capable assets of which are maintained by the Naval Reactors Program at the Department of Energy. We must ensure they have adequate support to perform their mission across the globe.
Colleagues, I do recognize that this bill will not solve the larger funding problem. We must enact full-year annual appropriations to meet today's requirements, as voted on earlier this year, and not rely on continuing resolutions to keep the government open.
In this regard, my thanks to Ranking Member Kaptur for her leadership and support of our annual appropriations process. Until we get back to regular order, this bill will provide critical funding to our Nation's security, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I want to thank my colleague, Congressman Frelinghuysen, for his comments though, obviously, I have serious reservations about this bill because our country has been the world's shining example in how a democratic Republic can actually work efficiently, successfully, and democratically. Yet, today, we continue with the shenanigans from a minority of the majority, wasting God's good time.
For my colleagues who are listening, and for the country, let me say this bill should be coming to the floor at a level of $31 billion to meet the national security, energy, and water needs of this country. The measure before us today contains $10.6 billion and only deals with the nuclear security portion of the legislation. That is simply not sufficient for this great country.
We cannot continue to be governed by staggering from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis, and the folly--some would say madness--
of what is going on here must be stopped. It is creating great uncertainty inside this economy, and it is harming us globally with our trading partners and with countries who simply can't understand what is happening here.
Over the course of the last several weeks, my Republican colleagues have loudly called for compromise. They have said, Negotiate to reopen the government, but, all the while, changing their demands daily and moving the goalpost. They moved it up the field, down the field, off the field. We start the day and never know exactly where we are.
Mr. Speaker, the Democratic Members of this House have agreed to a total spending level that is the Republican level of $986 billion for all of our bills. That is not a number I personally agree with. It will not meet our Nation's needs, but it is a compromise offered in good faith to move our country forward.
My advice to all those who are listening is to bring that clean continuing resolution with the Republican budget number in it to the floor. Let's reopen the government, and we can deal with our tangential issues that have nothing to do with operating the Government of the United States.
Our economy is still in the process of recovering from a horrible Great Recession. We have still not come back to the preemployment levels in this country that were so deeply harmed by the Wall Street-
induced housing crisis. Shouldn't we be debating ways to spur economic growth, not continuing to debate a shutdown that is slowing economic growth?
Under the Obama administration, we have had 42 consecutive months of economic growth. We are crawling out of a mammoth hole. The American people view the disarray here as very, very destabilizing to their own security because they are worried about their futures, and what is going on here adds to their anxiety.
For the entire country, the Republican shutdown is already having real and negative consequences. Over 800,000 workers have been furloughed. They are having to borrow on their credit cards because they don't know how they are going to make their mortgage payment. They have to put their kids in school. They have to buy groceries.
From coast-to-coast, we know--although we don't have people in place at the Department of Labor right now--that over 66,000--up to 300,000--
more unemployment claims have now been filed in the country because of what is going on due to these 800,000 more people that have gotten some form of a pink slip.
For the entire country, this shutdown is wrong and unnecessary. The impacts will be felt across this economy--and already are--in the services that the American taxpayers pay for and that the Federal Government has, up to now, provided. As we continue to shortchange critical energy and infrastructure investments so vital to a strong economy, we will witness, as dusk follows dawn, the slowing of economic growth and the hindering of American competitiveness.
Let me turn to what is not funded by the piecemeal approach that this bill represents. Our bill should be coming to the floor with all the parts of the Department of Energy and Army Corps of Engineers and National Nuclear Security Administration in it. The bill should be coming to us at a level of $31 billion. The bill is but one-third of that. At a level of $10.6 billion, it is two-thirds underfunded.
Let me turn to what is not funded in the bill that is before us.
First of all, the Corps of Engineers, one of the most important instrumentalities in our government to create jobs, is not even in this cynical bill. Communities across our country will continue to feel the consequences of this decreased investment. We should be doing more to prevent flooding, to build infrastructure, to create jobs, not less.
For those of you who have been yelling from the rooftops about the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, this bill does nothing--zero--for your ports and harbors.
This bill does not fund any of the energy technology accounts so critical to our Nation becoming energy independent again. As our foreign competitors double down to develop 21st century technology--
look at the Chinese stealing our solar technology--and undermine our markets through illegal dumping and intellectual property poaching, our choice in this bill: do nothing.
So, renewable energy will receive cost competitiveness by whom? Which countries will succeed? Who will develop it and own that technology? According to this, we are ceding the turf to them, ceding the field to them.
If you look at U.S. trade accounts, you don't have to be a mathematical genius. What is the number one category of trade deficit of this country? Imported energy. And what is the number two category of trade deficit? Automotive and automotive parts. It is all connected. If America doesn't heal those accounts, we become weaker as a country; we have fewer jobs here at home, less wealth creation here at home.
And this particular bill is absent any forward thinking about new energy systems for our country. The United States has spent $2.3 trillion importing petroleum just since 2003.
I hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle say we have a $17 trillion debt that we have to pay off. We sure do. And where do you think it has come from? It has come from the lack of wealth creation inside this country for a quarter of a century, starting with imported energy.
This represents thousands and thousands and millions of jobs across this country lost and dollars out of the pockets of working-class Americans who see their purchases of fuel transferred to build giant hotels in Dubai, supporting universities in Dubai, all across the Middle East, while we see companies close, communities shut down, Detroit go bankrupt; and all these problems because we are not energy independent and we are not transportation independent.
These are dollars spent not in much-needed job creation but siphoned off overseas, assisting our competitors in developing their economies and their energy futures, not our own.
Is it any wonder that America has a debt? It is rooted in very major holes inside this economy. You could start with two wars. What did those cost us? Probably $4 trillion to $6 trillion--unpaid for. There wasn't any war tax imposed when President Bush took us to war.
I remember Donald Rumsfeld saying, Well, you have got to go to war with the military you have. Well, they borrowed to do that, and now this President has begun to keep his promise to the American people. We are out of Iraq and we are moving out of Afghanistan, as we try to hold those sad places together with our allies.
The housing crisis of 2008, it is anybody's guess what that cost us, but we know it hollowed out money creation in this country. We have the largest transfer of wealth and loss of equity in modern history. Do you think you crawl out of that in a month or 2 months? It takes years. We have had 42 months of steady job creation.
The trade deficit, America hasn't had a balanced trade account in three decades. Since 1975, the cumulative trade deficit of this country was $8.4 trillion. There was more petroleum coming in here from abroad than American energy exports out, more cars and auto parts in here from abroad than cars and auto parts out, and more electronics components coming in here than American electronics exports out.
So if you add up $8.4 trillion of trade deficit, $6 trillion of war expenditures, if you take the cost of the meltdown on Wall Street--only God knows how many trillions that cost us--is it any wonder that the United States has a budget deficit and debt and the Federal Government is trying to hold the Republic together and our 50 States from coast-to-coast? It is pretty clear to me what is going on here.
So we look at this bill. Our Republic will not compete in the 21st century and beyond if we further reduce investments in energy and cede our energy future to other countries. The bill before us today does nothing about that. In fact, in one of the most important related sectors to us, manufacturing, this bill does nothing in manufacturing.
One of the reasons we don't have as much economic muscle in this country is because every community you go to, what do you see? Shuttered factories. Every product you pick up, what does it say?
``Made in China.'' Anytime I go to the store and find anything made in America, I buy it in hopes that it will help somebody somewhere along the way.
This bill does nothing for manufacturing. We have lost 15 percent of our manufacturing jobs. And it isn't just because of technology; it is because they have been shipped out, outsourced, made in China, not made in the USA, made in countries some of my constituents don't even know where they are, and these goods come in here. And every time American jobs get displaced in the manufacturing sector, 8.8 million manufacturing jobs disappear.
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Manufacturing is one of the most important drivers in our economy, and yet we have a huge trade deficit in manufacturing. There is little merit in using Federal dollars to foster technological advances or breakthroughs for products that are not ultimately manufactured domestically in our country. This bill usually provides a means for us to do more to reverse the trend of domestic firms shifting manufacturing overseas because, to put it simply, domestic manufacturing drives domestic innovation, and that drives wealth creation and job creation in our country. This bill does nothing in the advanced manufacturing sector--off the table.
How sad. How sad for those people across our country who know the value added from manufacturing.
This bill does nothing for science or advanced science and energy. Return on investments from our publicly funded research and development ranges from 20 to 67 percent. What a bang for the buck. With this rate of return, we should be passing a bill that invests in science and high sciences, but that is not happening inside this bill. In fact, across this country, at all of our major labs, the workers are furloughed or have the threat of being furloughed hanging over them--at Livermore, at Sandia, at Argonne. The brain power of this country is being put on the shelf while they watch this charade here inside this Chamber.
This bill does nothing to address the funding for the Office of Environmental Management, whose mission is to complete the safe cleanup of what they call an ``environmental legacy'' and that I call a
``nuclear mess,'' brought about by five decades of nuclear weapons development and government-sponsored nuclear energy research.
So what do we do to clean up nuclear mess around our country in this bill? Zero. We do nothing.
What about our promises to the people who live near those communities? What about those who sacrifice so much for America's nuclear superiority? We shut the door. So long. Nothing. There is nothing in this bill.
This energy and water bill is one of the most critical investments we can make in this country. It should promote job creation. It should ensure national security. It should protect and promote our vital infrastructure and advance American competitiveness through energy independence and through strengthening manufacturing and scientific capability right here at home, right here in the good old USA. Unfortunately, a minority of the majority of Republicans is choosing to ignore all of these critical investments in order to execute a blatantly political stunt that is already harming our country, upsetting our people, and tamping down on job growth.
Mr. Speaker, our Nation is stronger when we come together. We as a people can solve the serious challenges facing our country; yet here we find ourselves today again, wasting time on a lopsided bill which only extends the GOP-driven shutdown. We should be spending our time passing a clean continuing resolution, not holding the entire country hostage to a reckless political stunt that some must get great pleasure out of but that is such a sadistic approach to the governing of this country. We ought to work together toward a long-term solution, not continue to award a faction of one party which has no interest in governing this country.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of the full Appropriations Committee.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Nuclear Weapon Security and Non-Proliferation Act.
Yes, it is a narrow scope, but it is a terribly important piece of the government. Like the bill we passed yesterday, this legislation addresses matters of critical importance to our national security. The National Nuclear Security Administration maintains our nuclear deterrents here at home, but it also helps to ensure that nuclear weapons and materials don't fall into the wrong hands--those of terrorists and other enemies of our Nation.
H.J. Res. 76 provides funding for the NNSA to continue this vital work--to keep our nuclear arsenal at the ready and our Navy ships powered--and, ultimately, to keep this country safe and secure and protected.
This is particularly important at a time when we face multiple threats from unpredictable nations and groups. When our government shut down, it did not also shut down nuclear power reactors, research and testing in Iraq, Iran, or North Korea. Funding is provided at the current annual rate of $10.59 billion to sustain the national labs, to continue the work of skilled workers and scientists, to conduct ongoing nonproliferation intelligence operations, and to maintain the safety and readiness of our nuclear stockpile.
As with the prior 14 mini-CRs this House has passed in the last week, this language is essentially identical to what was included in my initial short-term continuing resolution. So this is a clean bill, Mr. Speaker, adhering to the Senate's demands in that regard. Also, as with the prior bills, this funding will last until December 15 or until full-year appropriations are enacted. It is my hope that the latter is what happens.
Our Nation deserves the certainty of an adequately funded government with appropriations bills that reflect current needs but also current fiscal restraints. To achieve this, we must come together with our Senate counterparts and have a meaningful discussion that establishes a single, common, top-line number for discretionary spending that Members of both parties and both Houses of Congress can work toward.
The ongoing standoffs are not productive. They aren't getting us any closer to reopening the government. While it is not the ideal path forward at this time, passing this funding bill does get us a step closer to ending the shutdown, which I know is the goal of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
So far, this House has voted on a bipartisan basis to reopen critical government functions, including the support for those who serve the country in the Department of Defense. Our nuclear security efforts are equally important to our defense and should have ongoing funding to keep the country safe and sound. So I urge my colleagues to support this bill, Mr. Speaker.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, might I inquire as to the time remaining on this side, please.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Ohio has 4\1/2\ minutes remaining, and the gentleman from New Jersey has 12 minutes remaining.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlelady from New York, Congresswoman Nita Lowey, our esteemed ranking member.
Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the Republican shutdown.
Of course we support funding for nuclear weapon security and nonproliferation activities, but this bill does nothing to address a number of other critical energy and water priorities, including the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, ARPA-E, and the Office of Environmental Management, which is responsible for cleaning up five decades' worth of weapons development and nuclear energy research.
Even if House Republicans' irresponsible, piecemeal bills were enacted, at the rate they are going, it would take until after Christmas before the government would be fully up and running.
We could end this shutdown today if Republican leadership would just allow a vote. The claim that Democrats won't negotiate is a farce, my friends. Throughout the year, we have pleaded with Republicans to sit down and negotiate a broader budget agreement; and dozens of times Republicans have refused. Now, after wasting the first 10 months of the year and after shutting down the government as they steer the country towards economic catastrophe, they claim they want to negotiate. Democrats and the President have already agreed to the Republicans' funding level. If only Republicans would allow a vote, we could have the government reopened tonight.
Vote ``no'' on this bill, and let's vote to immediately end the Republican shutdown.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Fleischmann).
Mr. FLEISCHMANN. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
To all of my colleagues in this great United States House of Representatives, I want to ask each and every one of you to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I am privileged to represent the Third District of Tennessee. In the Third District of Tennessee is a very special city. It's called Oak Ridge. At one point in time, it was called the Secret City. That's where we had the Manhattan Project and brought World War II to a close because of the efforts of the men and women who worked there and who succeeded there. We won the Cold War there.
Today, this bill does one very specific thing: it honors the almost 5,000 workers who work every day at the Y-12 National Security Complex for our nuclear deterrent.
Let me be clear: this is not a matter of partisan politics; this is a matter of national security. So I stand here, putting a very human face on this for the workers who work hard every day, who have toiled for years. They deserve better, and this bill does that.
Again, let me be clear: Y-12 is going through an orderly shutdown. We cannot allow this to happen, not as Republicans, not as Democrats, but as Americans. The Nation's security is at risk. This bill keeps Y-12 open, and this is exactly what we need to do.
Let's put aside the partisan rhetoric, and let's honor the hardworking men and women of Y-12. Let's keep them working, and let's keep the greatest Nation on the face of the Earth safe and secure.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute and 15 seconds to the gentleman from New York, Mr. Hakeem Jeffries.
Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, this is day 11 of the reckless Republican shutdown of the United States Government, and you have still failed to provide a way out of the mess that you have created.
The communities that I represent in Brooklyn and Queens are still struggling from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy; yet this bill fails to fund the Army Corps of Engineers.
This was a wholesale government shutdown, and all that is offered is a piecemeal reopening. You have burned down the entire house, but offer only to rebuild the kitchen. That is a shameful dereliction of duty and a woefully inadequate remedy. This shutdown is hurting the American people. It is undemocratic, unconscionable, unnecessary, unreasonable, and unjust.
It is time to get back to doing the business of the American people. Let's reopen the entire government. Vote ``no'' on this piecemeal approach.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Thornberry), a member of the Armed Services Committee.
Mr. THORNBERRY. I commend the gentleman from New Jersey for his leadership and for bringing this measure to the floor.
Mr. Speaker, the bill the gentleman brought to the floor on Wednesday, just the day before yesterday, passed the House, passed the Senate, and it was signed into law by the President last night. So the argument that you can't fund any of the government unless you fund all of the government is, obviously, not true. Every single Member of the House voted for the bill that the gentleman from New Jersey brought to the floor that was dealing with military death benefits.
We have set priorities. We have said the military has to be paid, and this bill also sets priorities because the nuclear deterrent is absolutely central to our national security just as the military is.
For 60 years, the centerpiece of our country's security has been the nuclear deterrent that has helped keep us secure. These are aging weapons, however, and so that means there are maintenance issues, there are safety issues, there are reliability issues, which a very highly skilled, dedicated workforce must address every single day.
So that's what this bill does. This allows that work to continue, as well as the very important work in dealing with nonproliferation, as well as keeping our nuclear-powered ships operating. All of those things central to our country's security are empowered by this bill.
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Mr. Speaker, it is the easiest excuse any of us can use to oppose a bill because of what it does not do.
What we ought to do is look at what a bill does do. What this bill does do is keep the central part of our country's security operating even as we sort out our other budget woes.
I think it deserves the support of all Members of the House, and I encourage them to vote for it.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the esteemed gentleman from New Mexico, Congressman Ben Ray Lujan.
Mr. BEN RAY LUJAN of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, funding for the NNSA is critically important to my State of New Mexico, for we are home to both Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs. However, this bill denies these national security labs the funding they need as it locks in the deep cuts of sequester for 2 more months.
There is not a Member of this body--Democrat or Republican--that says they like the sequester, Mr. Speaker, but my Republican colleagues refuse to lift it. They say they want to keep the government open, but they place conditions on it.
This piecemeal approach in this bill to the Department of Energy and to the NNSA is picking winners and losers with employees that are going to be furloughed. This is a shame, and it is a sham--this Republican charade that is going to go home to my State of New Mexico and direct the Directors of the labs to tell employees who is going to go home without a paycheck and who will not--because there is still not assurance that the Secretary of Energy, through the Department of Energy, will make these employees whole through allowable costs that will be accepted. Enough is enough.
Mr. Speaker, this is a shame. Let's do the right thing and open the government.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Heck), also a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Mr. HECK of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen), for bringing this important measure to the floor.
Since the start of this partial shutdown 11 days ago, the House has focused on one of our core constitutional functions: funding key portions of the Federal Government.
We have come together in a bipartisan way several times over the past few days to pay our troops, provide benefits for the families of fallen soldiers, reopen the NIH, provide money for disaster relief efforts, and fund other crucial governmental departments and operations.
These are the types of tough spending choices the American people, and people in my district, demand we make. When you are nearly $17 trillion in debt, you have to prioritize, just like any business or family does when funds are tight.
Today, Mr. Speaker, we turn our focus to a critical issue of national security and public safety. That is ensuring that the National Nuclear Security Administration has the funding it needs to secure our nuclear stockpile and materials.
Recent reports indicate that the Department of Energy may begin furloughing employees and contractors at the eight NNSA sites around the country starting October 21. Sites such as the Nevada National Security Site, which is home to approximately 2,500 employees and contractors, will reduce staffing to levels sufficient to maintain
``minimally safe operations.'' This situation presents a threat to national security, public safety, and our economy.
The Nevada National Security Site is charged with supporting our national stockpile. Additionally, the Security Site oversees the administration of training for first responders in the prevention of, protection from, and response to possible terrorist use of radiological or nuclear material. With critical functions such as these, ``minimally safe operations'' is simply not an option.
The same is true at NNSA sites around the country. The men and women who work at these sites not only have critical duties, but they are also critical to our local economies.
In fact, contractors at NNSA sites may reduce their workforce by as much as 80 to 90 percent. Such attrition would take a great deal of money out of the economy at a time when States like mine, with an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent, can ill-afford to lose jobs.
H.J. Res. 76 maintains our national security and prevents harm to our economy.
I urge my colleagues to support this important measure.
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I yield the remainder of my time to the gentleman from Oregon, Congressman Earl Blumenauer.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. I appreciate the gentlelady's courtesy.
Mr. Speaker, one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle talked about our being the ``greatest Nation in the world,'' but Republicans are running it like a banana republic. People who ran out of this Chamber gleeful that the government was going to shut down have suddenly discovered that there is 20 percent of the government that they want to operate.
There is a simple way to resolve this impasse. If you want to negotiate truly, appoint the conferees to the Budget Committee. The Republicans have refused to do that for 6 months. If you want to control spending, bring your own appropriations bills to the floor and see if your people have the fortitude to slash government spending further.
Remember, they stopped operation on the Transportation-HUD bill 2 months ago. It can be brought up today. But they refuse to do so because their spending levels are so unrealistic their own Members won't vote for them. They would rather deal in the abstract. They would rather hold America hostage. It is shameful. It is unnecessary.
Bring a continuing resolution to the floor and put the government back to work.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson), a member of the Armed Services Committee.
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Thank you, Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen, for yielding. I am very grateful for your leadership on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, funding our national security interests within the Department of Energy must be a priority in order to protect every American family. Today, the House will pass an important measure that will fund the National Nuclear Security Administration. The NNSA will provide necessary resources that are critical and allow our country to continue operations for dozens of vital national security missions.
I am fortunate to represent the Department of Energy Savannah River Site in Aiken and Barnwell Counties, South Carolina. I especially appreciate its personnel, as the only Member of Congress who has actually worked at the site.
The passage of this bill is essential, as it will provide our dedicated workers who are handling these operations the security they need to complete their vital missions. Our Nation is a much safer place because of ongoing tritium operations and the mixed oxide fuel fabrication facility currently under construction at SRS. These missions are essential to our Nation's national security, as they allow us to service our nuclear stockpile and honor international nuclear obligations of nonproliferation.
Additionally, the Savannah River Site, which established victory in the Cold War, has thousands of committed employees working on Department of Energy environmental management projects. These professionals also provide crucial services to our country through their nuclear nonproliferation and environmental cleanup efforts.
Although I am encouraged by today's legislation, I remain hopeful that Congress can work together to provide necessary funding for these projects as well.
I appreciate Chairman Hal Rogers for bringing this bill to the floor today and urge all of my colleagues of both parties to vote in support of this legislation.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Turner), a member of the Armed Services Committee.
Mr. TURNER. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Frelinghuysen for his dedication and commitment to the important issue of our strategic assets.
When we look at the NNSA, they have had for a number of years difficulty in getting support from this administration for the important efforts of modernizing our nuclear weapons infrastructure and ensuring the strategic assets that are so essential to our Nation's security.
This issue also is one that represents, I think, a great analogy to the difficulty that we are having in resolving this conflict. We have the President of the United States, who openly states that he will have negotiations with Russia on our strategic assets, on our nuclear weapons. He will even have secret negotiations--as we saw in his open mic incident--with his secret deal with the Russians concerning our missile defense systems; yet, the President openly says he will not negotiate with the legislature. He will negotiate with Syria, he will negotiate with Iran, but he won't negotiate with the legislature.
Also, this issue illustrates some of the difficulties that we have in this House itself. We are putting on House bills that should have 100 percent unanimous support. Yet when these bills come to the House, these bills predominantly have been divided on a partisan basis because people want to say, Well, it doesn't fund everything.
Everyone knows when you have a disagreement, you start first upon the things you agree. The bills that have been coming forth on this House floor should be the things that we agree on, but partisan politics continues to divide us where, instead of the House coming together on all of these bills and saying, yes, these are the things that we agree on, and we will put aside the things we disagree on for later, we have difficulty in getting even the important things done, and this is an important one.
I want to thank Chairman Frelinghuysen for his commitment to ensure the safety of our nuclear deterrent, the workers, and the important work that is being done at the NNSA.
This is a discussion, though, that needs to go beyond just this stopgap bill and even the issue of a CR. This administration has continually cut the resources for our nuclear deterrent in ways which jeopardize the future of our strategic assets. We need to make certain that this conversation continues.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Ms. Kaptur, do you have any further speakers?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Ohio's time has expired.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. I would be happy to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur).
Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I would thank the chairman for that courtesy and just say that I would urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this particular piecemeal continuing resolution. Hopefully, others will come to their senses and we will be able to vote for a clean continuing resolution, which I think the majority of members of our subcommittee would appreciate, so we can reopen the government and deal with all of the responsibilities that we have under this particular bill and meet our responsibilities to energy and water across this country.
I thank the gentleman for his courtesy, and I hope to reciprocate sometime.
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Mr. Speaker, it has been a pleasure to work with Ms. Kaptur.
In closing, Robert Spalding wrote in The Washington Post recently an article called ``Nuclear Weapons are Instruments of Peace.'' In his close, he wrote:
The sensible path to peace starts with the realization that peace can be secured only through strength. Nuclear weapons represent that strength. We must embrace it through funding and rhetoric.
Indeed we do. Nothing is more important than the reliability of our nuclear weapon stockpile, as is obviously our responsibility to the world to prevent nuclear proliferation, and one of the ways that we protect America and provide for a strong national defense is to have a strong naval reactor program so that our aircraft carriers and subs can truly do the work of freedom.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 371, the previous question is ordered.
The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was read the third time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 1(c) of rule XIX, further consideration of House Joint Resolution 76 is postponed.
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