Appropriations 101, Energy and Water Edition
In the second installment of the Appropriations 101 series, Energy and Water Development Subcommittee Chairman Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) joined Interior and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-ID) to delve into the funding mechanism for the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and the Army Corps of Engineers.
Both having chaired the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, the two Cardinals highlighted the nationwide impact of the Army Corps of Engineers. They also spoke on how the Appropriations Committee truly serves the American people.
Watch Subcommittee Chairman Simpson and Subcommittee Chairman Fleischmann’s conversation here.
Simpson: “It's been difficult, because when we took over, we decided we had to stop the excessive spending that had been done in the last year and the years before that, so we're actually reducing spending.”
Fleischmann: “We're doing that, absolutely. We are sticking to the constraints, the rather rigid constraints, of the FRA, no side deals. Obviously, we're in tight fiscal times. We're going to come up with a fiscally responsible Energy and Water bill, as you will do in your subcommittee, and the other Cardinals will do that as well.”
Simpson: “It’s always easy to spend money - it's a lot tougher to cut back on spending. But we have some challenges, as you well know in the Energy bill, and you did a great job putting it together last year. We've got the Department of Energy, [which] is one of the premier research departments in all of the federal government and all of our country, and they're doing work both on nuclear energy and advanced reactors and all of those types of things. All of that takes money, and oftentimes we can't do everything we'd like to do.”
Fleischmann: “Well, you're absolutely right. Also, and perhaps most importantly, it funds the NNSA, the National Nuclear Security Administration, which keeps and actually prepares, our nation's nuclear arsenal for the ultimate customer, which would be the Department of Defense. Of the 17 labs, some of them are predominantly weapons…”
Simpson: “It may be that the Army Corps of Engineers is the greatest construction budget that we have in this country. If there are 435 legislative districts, there are at least 435 projects they're working on. They work on projects in every district in the country. The Army Corps, as you know, the rules and regulations oftentimes working with a federal agency sometimes can be frustrating for people, but they do great work.”
Fleischmann: “They do great work. They build our locks, our dams that keep our waterways running all over the great United States, which is so critically important. And these are great men and women who actually serve in the United States Army. They happen to be in the Corps of Engineers. What's great about many of these men and women, they're former Army combatants. Many of them are Rangers. Truly, truly outstanding people at all ranks.”
###
