Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. I thank the chairman.

Madam Chair, yesterday, we received a letter and white paper from the Chief of Naval Operations and the Director of the Naval Reactors program. I will include these documents and statement for the Record that I will be submitting shortly.

This eight-star letter from our Nation's most senior naval officer makes clear that the cuts made to the Naval Reactors' budget request over the last 4 years are endangering the safety and reliability of the Navy's nuclear fleet.

With the 12 percent reduction proposed by the bill before us today, Naval Reactors will have taken over $600 million in cuts over 5 years.

The letter from the admiral is clear:

The persistent cuts have put Naval Reactors in the position of being unable to provide for a safe and reliable nuclear fleet, to design and test the nuclear reactor plant for the Ohio replacement program, and to safely and responsibly manage the aging infrastructure and the facilities for processing naval spent nuclear fuel. This approach is no longer sustainable.

Naval Reactors is a critical defense priority contained in this much larger appropriations bill. I share the admiral's concern that, if sustained, these reductions will endanger national security and the Naval Reactors' unparalleled 60-year record of safe and reliable nuclear operations.

I urge the gentleman from Idaho to review these proposed reductions and their impacts as this bill progresses and to restore the Naval Reactors' funding to the budget request level in a conference or in a potential continuing resolution.

I and my colleagues on the Armed Services Committee stand ready to support these efforts.

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