Statement from Congressman Hastings on Nuclear Cleanup Funding in the House Stimulus Bill
Statement
Statement from Congressman Hastings on Nuclear Cleanup Funding in the House Stimulus Bill
The House of Representatives today passed a $825 billion spending bill. A statement from Congressman Doc Hastings, who voted against the House Democrat bill, follows:
"I've spent over a decade working to protect and increase the budget at Hanford and our nation's other cleanup sites, and I support the nuclear cleanup dollars in this bill. Yet, a massive expansion of the federal government is not the way to get our economy back on track. In fact, the vast majority of spending in this bill is wholly unrelated to creating jobs or growing our economy.
Meeting the federal government's cleanup commitments at Hanford need not cost American taxpayers the trillion dollar price tag of this bloated bill.
The Bush Administration failed to keep promises made under its accelerated cleanup initiative and proposed deep and irresponsible cuts to Hanford funding for this year. Congress must reverse those cuts and provide funding to keep cleanup on track.
In just the next several weeks, Congress and the Obama Administration will have multiple opportunities (stimulus bill, FY09 omnibus bill, FY10 budget) to restore the Hanford budget so that cleanup milestones can be met, progress on critical projects can move forward and work to shrink the site can continue.
An increase in funding is necessary and positive, yet we must remain focused on achieving stable, dependable funding that is needed to keep cleanup on track to meet the federal government's legal commitments to the states.
Congress must hold the line on deficit spending and enact fast acting tax cuts for job-creating small businesses and American families in order to boost our economy. Congress must also work to create more American-made energy, enact fair trade policies that provide new opportunities for Washington state farmers and businesses, protect the dams that provide lower-cost power to the Northwest, and support locally driven economic solutions."
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