Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. BACA. I'd like to thank the chairman and Member Dicks for allowing me this effort on this legislation. I also want to thank my colleague, Gary Miller, for supporting this amendment.

This is a Baca-Miller amendment. It is bipartisan. It directs $10 million to be moved from the Operations and Management portion of the Department of Defense budget to the Research and Development portion of the budget. Moving these funds will allow the DOD to develop cost-effective solutions to environmental problems.

These funds will allow the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program to support, and I state, grants. This is a grant, it's not an earmark, that provides clear water.

My communities in California, including Gary Miller's district, in the Inland Empire must deal with perchlorate contaminated water. Perchlorate is a rocket fuel additive that can be harmful to women, children, and the elderly, that affects both Gary Miller's and my district. This contamination has resulted in millions of dollars in cost to the region for cleanup litigation.

Congress should actively support the DOD effort to develop solutions to problems like perchlorate contamination. I ask my colleagues to support the Baca-Miller amendment, a bipartisan amendment.

Again, I thank the chair and the ranking member, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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