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“JESSIE ROBERSON--A GOOD CHOICE FOR A CRUCIAL JOB” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Energy was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E661 on April 26, 2001.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
JESSIE ROBERSON--A GOOD CHOICE FOR A CRUCIAL JOB
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HON. MARK UDALL
of colorado
in the house of representatives
Thursday, April 26, 2001
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, one of the most difficult and most important jobs in the Federal Government is overseeing the cleanup of the vast complex of Department of Energy sites where plutonium and other nuclear weapons components were produced or processed.
Coloradans have a big stake in this because our State is home to a number of these sites, notably the Rocky flats site in the district I represent.
So, I rise to applaud the reported decision of President Bush to nominate Ms. Jessie Roberson, to the important position of Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management. I think it is an excellent choice.
I had the opportunity to work with Jessie when she headed the Rocky flats project in Colorado. I took an immediate liking to her--not just because of her professionalism and no-nonsense style, but also because she seemed to me to enjoy working hard, while maintaining a sense of good humor.
Her tenure at Rocky flats was highly successful. She led agency efforts to keep the commitment, first made by Energy Secretary Federico Pena, to give a high priority to finishing full cleanup and closure of rocky flats on a much earlier timetable than had previously been proposed.
I know I speak for all of my colleagues in the Colorado delegation in wishing her the very best as she undertakes important new responsibilities at the Department of Energy.
A recent editorial by the Denver Post put it right by calling Jessie Roberson a ``top flight'' pick. For the information of our colleagues, I submit that editorial for the Record:
Roberson a Top-Flight Pick
U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abrahams is getting some top-flight help in cleaning up the nation's Cold War legacy: Jessie Roberson, who headed the Department of Energy's Rocky Flats closure project in Colorado, is being nominated to manage DOE's entire environmental cleanup program nationwide.
Roberson will be the second Rocky Flats veteran to move into a key DOE post. Earlier, the White House announced it will nominate Robert Card for undersecretary of energy. Card previously headed Kaiser-Hill, the contractor doing the cleanup at Rocky Flats, the mothballed nuclear bomb trigger factory north of Golden.
The Rocky Flats crew led by Roberson and Card accomplished, in just three years of teamwork, more progress toward cleanup and closure than the facility had logged in the previous decade.
It's understandable that Abrahams would look toward the people who brought DOE past success to move the entire department toward its future goals.
Roberson is an excellent choice. She is a nuclear engineer who in 1996 was named the national Black Engineer of the Year for Professional Achievement in Government. That same year, she took the reins at Rocky Flats, where her personable but no-nonsense style got the flagging project on track.
In 1999, the Democratic Clinton administration tapped Roberson for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Board, which provides independent oversight at DOE nuclear sites on all issues affecting health and safety.
Now the Republican Bush Administration also has recognized the value of her 17 years of nuclear safety experience.
As assistant energy secretary for environmental management, Roberson will oversee the cleanup of all the country's Cold War atomic sites. Among them: Hanford, the toxic and radioactive nightmare in eastern Washington. Savannah River, the South Carolina reactor and processing plant that must be modernized. And Rocky Flats, the one place DOE has scored read progress toward cleanup.
With Abrahams at the top and Card in the No. 2 slot, Roberson will round out DOE's civilian management team.
The department's environmental management job, in fact, is one of the toughest positions in the federal government today. There likely isn't a better person around to tackle the task, however, that Jessie Roberson.
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