Grid Reliability and Infrastructure Defense Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARTLETT. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the bipartisan bill, H.R. 5026, which has been approved unanimously by a vote of 47-0 by the Energy and Commerce Committee. That doesn't happen very often in today's Congress.

According to the National Academy of Sciences, this bill is necessary because there is one event that we will not avoid, and that is solar geomagnetic interference--a solar storm. If--really, when--we have a big one like the Carrington event that occurred in 1859, this will shut down our whole grid. It would cost us only about $100 million to protect the grid from EMP. This investment won't be made without H.R. 5026. The consequences of inaction are dire. If our grid is destroyed by EMP or by a Carrington event, which is an electromagnetic storm, the National Academies warn it will cost us between $1 trillion and $2 trillion in damages, and it will take 4 to 10 years to recover.

With the grid's being down, more or less, for 4 to 10 years, one can only imagine the consequences to our society. This is a really important bipartisan bill, and I rise in very strong support.

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