Thank you, Chairman Simpson, Ranking Member Kaptur, and Chairman Frelinghuysen for your work on this bill.
The fiscal year 2018 omnibus was an important step toward addressing the water infrastructure backlog in our country, and made significant investments in science and technology that will grow the economy, create jobs and ensure our security.
This bill continues on that path with a significant increase for the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. Together with the supplemental funding passed earlier this year, we have given the Corps a big shovel to start digging out of its $96 billion backlog, including many projects in New York.
Likewise, the Chairman’s mark makes increased investments at the Department of Energy, including for the Office of Science and to secure and modernize our electric grid.
However, I cannot say everything in this bill is perfect. Democratic priorities within DOE that drive innovation and safeguard our national security, such as energy efficiency and renewable energy, nuclear nonproliferation, and ARPA-E are cut from the 2018 enacted level. The bill also includes funding for a new nuclear weapons capability called for in the Nuclear Posture Review that has not been fully debated by this committee.
Unfortunately, that’s not all. Once again, the majority has included controversial and harmful policy riders that make this bill harder to pass in a bipartisan manner.
The Majority knows full well that many of these riders were stripped out of the final FY18 spending agreement and cannot be included in a future bill that requires bipartisan support to pass.
I look forward to working together to improve this bill as the process moves forward.
Source: U.S. Department of HCA
