April 9, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 61 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S2320-S2321]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY FISCAL YEAR 2020 BUDGET REQUEST

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that a copy 
of my opening statement at the Subcommittee on Energy and Water 
Development's budget hearing for the Department of Energy's fiscal year 
2020 budget request be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

          Department of Energy Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Request

       Mr. ALEXANDER. The Subcommittee on Energy and Water 
     Development will please come to order.
       Today's hearing will review the administration's fiscal 
     year 2020 budget request for the Department of Energy.
       This is the Subcommittee's first budget hearing this year.
       We will have three additional hearings with the National 
     Nuclear Security Administration, the Corps of Engineers and 
     Bureau of Reclamation, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
     over the next five weeks. Senator Feinstein and I will each 
     have an opening statement.
       I will then recognize each Senator for up to five minutes 
     for an opening statement, alternating between the majority 
     and minority, in the order in which they arrived.
       We will then turn to Secretary Perry for his testimony on 
     behalf of the Department of Energy.
       At the conclusion of Secretary Perry's testimony, I will 
     then recognize Senators for five minutes of questions each, 
     alternating between the majority and minority in the order in 
     which they arrived. Earlier this week I proposed a New 
     Manhattan Project for Clean Energy, a five year project with 
     Ten Grand Challenges that will use American research and 
     technology to put our country and the world firmly on a path 
     toward clean, cheaper energy.
       Meeting these Grand Challenges would create breakthroughs 
     in advanced nuclear reactors, natural gas, carbon capture, 
     better batteries, greener buildings, electric vehicles, 
     cheaper solar and fusion. To provide the tools to create 
     these breakthroughs, the federal government should double its 
     funding for energy research and keep the United States number 
     one in the world in advanced computing. This strategy takes 
     advantage of the United States' secret weapon, our 
     extraordinary capacity for basic research especially at our 
     17 national laboratories. It will strengthen our economy and 
     raise our family incomes.
       As we review the Department of Energy's fiscal year 2020 
     budget request today and work on drafting the Energy and 
     Water Development Appropriations bill, I will be keeping 
     these Ten Grand Challenges in mind.
       I would like to thank Secretary Perry for being here today. 
     This is Secretary Perry's third year to testify before the 
     subcommittee.
       I also want to thank Senator Feinstein, with whom I have 
     the pleasure to work with again this year to draft the Energy 
     and Water Development Appropriations bill. Our subcommittee 
     has a good record of being the first of appropriations bills 
     to be considered by the Committee and by the Senate each 
     year. For each of the past four years, Senator Feinstein and 
     I have been able to have our bill signed into law.
       Last year, we worked together in a bipartisan way on the 
     fiscal year 2019 Energy and Water Development Appropriations 
     bill that was signed into law before the start of the fiscal 
     year--the first time that happened since 2000.
       We provided $6.585 billion for the Department's Office of 
     Science, the fourth consecutive year of record level funding, 
     which supports basic science and energy research at our 17 
     national laboratories and is the nation's largest supporter 
     of research in the physical sciences.
       The bill also provided $366 million for ARPA-E, to continue 
     the important research and development investments into high-
     impact energy technologies--another record funding level in a 
     regular appropriations bill.
       We also provided $1.3 billion for Department's Office of 
     Nuclear Energy, which is responsible for research and 
     development of advanced reactors and small modular reactors. 
     Finally, the bill we passed last year provided $15.2 billion 
     for the National Nuclear Security Administration, including 
     record funding levels for our Weapons Program and Naval 
     Reactors.
       This year, the Department of Energy's budget request is 
     about $3.9 billion below what Congress provided last year.

[[Page S2321]]

       I'm pleased that the Department's budget request 
     prioritizes supercomputing, and includes approximately $809 
     million to deploy exascale systems in the early 2020's.
       Unfortunately, the budget request this year again proposes 
     to decrease spending on federally funded research and 
     development, terminates ARPA-E and the loan guarantee 
     programs, and cuts other funding, specifically:
       The Office of Science by $1 billion;
       Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by $2 billion;
       Nuclear Energy by $502 million; and
       Fossil Energy by $178 million.
       And that is why we are holding this hearing: to give 
     Secretary Perry an opportunity to discuss the Department's 
     priorities, so Senator Feinstein and I can make informed 
     decisions as we begin to write the fiscal year 2020 Energy 
     and Water Development Appropriations bill over the next few 
     weeks. Governing is about setting priorities, and we always 
     have to make some hard decisions to ensure the highest 
     priorities are funded.
       Today, I'd like to focus my questions on five main areas, 
     all with an eye toward setting priorities: Prioritizing 
     federal support for science and energy research; Maintaining 
     a safe and effective nuclear weapons stockpile; Demonstrating 
     that we can build safe, affordable advanced reactors; Keeping 
     America first in supercomputing; and Solving the nuclear 
     waste stalemate. The Department of Energy's research programs 
     have made the United States a world leader in science and 
     technology, and these programs will help the United States 
     maintain its brainpower advantage to remain competitive at a 
     time when other countries are investing heavily in research.


   Demonstrating that We Can Build Safe, Affordable Advanced Reactors

       Today, nuclear power accounts for 60% of our carbon-free 
     electricity and, if we are going to slow the effects of 
     climate change, nuclear power will be necessary into the 
     future. However, the cost to build and operate today's large 
     nuclear reactors is too high. If we don't do something soon, 
     nuclear power will not have a future in the United States. 
     Advanced reactors have the potential to be smaller, cheaper, 
     less wasteful, and safer than today's reactors.
       To demonstrate their potential, we need to build some of 
     these advanced reactors, enable them to get licensed, and 
     make sure they are available to replace the existing reactors 
     when they come offline. Secretary Perry, I'd like to hear 
     your views on this, including whether you think it would be 
     helpful for the Department of Energy, working with the 
     private sector and the National Laboratories, to manage a 
     program that would build and demonstrate current advanced 
     reactor technologies.


       Maintaining a Safe and Effective Nuclear Weapons Stockpile

       A key pillar of our national defense is a strong nuclear 
     deterrent. Last February, the administration issued an 
     updated nuclear policy, called the Nuclear Posture Review. 
     The updated Nuclear Posture Review recommends continuing many 
     of the things Congress has been working on for the last 
     several years--things that I support, including: continuing 
     Life Extension Programs to make sure our current nuclear 
     weapons remain safe and effective; and continuing to invest 
     in the facilities we need to maintain our nuclear weapons 
     stockpile. This includes the Uranium Processing Facility, the 
     Plutonium Facility, and the facilities to process lithium and 
     tritium.
       I'm pleased to know the Department continues to make 
     progress on construction of the nuclear buildings for the 
     Uranium Processing Facility, and I'll be asking some 
     questions about that project today. The Nuclear Posture 
     Review also calls for two low yield warheads to be added to 
     the stockpile, largely in response to capabilities being 
     developed by Russia and other countries, and I know the 
     Department is working on this important issue.
       I'd like to hear more about that today, and look forward to 
     hearing about the progress being made on the Uranium 
     Processing Facility.
       China, Japan, the U.S. and the European Union all want to 
     be first in supercomputing. The stakes are high because the 
     winner has an advantage in advanced manufacturing, simulating 
     advanced reactors and weapons before they are built, finding 
     terrorists and saving billions of Medicaid waste, and 
     simulating the electric grid in a natural disaster, and other 
     progress.
       The U.S. regained the number one spot last year, thanks to 
     sustained funding by Congress during both the Obama and Trump 
     administrations. I am pleased that this budget request 
     proposes to continue development of exascale supercomputers--
     the next generation of supercomputers that will develop a 
     system a thousand times faster than the first supercomputer 
     the U.S. built in 2008.
       To ensure that nuclear power has a strong future in this 
     country, we must solve the decades' long stalemate over what 
     to do with used fuel from our nuclear reactors. Senator 
     Feinstein and I have been working on this problem for years, 
     and I'd like to take the opportunity to compliment Senator 
     Feinstein on her leadership and her insistence that we find a 
     solution to this problem. To solve the stalemate, we need to 
     find places to build geologic repositories and temporary 
     storage facilities so the federal government can finally meet 
     its legal obligation to dispose of nuclear waste safely and 
     permanently.
       This year's budget request for the Department of Energy 
     includes $110 million to restart work for Yucca Mountain 
     repository and $6.5 million to study ways to open an interim 
     storage site or use a private interim storage site. I 
     strongly believe that Yucca Mountain can and should be part 
     of the solution to the nuclear waste stalemate. Federal law 
     designates Yucca Mountain as the nation's repository for used 
     nuclear fuel, and the Commission's own scientists have told 
     us that we can safely store nuclear waste there for up to one 
     million years.
       But even if we had Yucca Mountain open today, we would 
     still need to look for another permanent repository. We have 
     more than enough used fuel to fill Yucca Mountain to its 
     legal capacity. So Senator Feinstein and I, working with the 
     leaders of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, 
     Senator Murkowski and then Senators Bingaman, Wyden, 
     Cantwell, and now Senator Manchin, have a bill to implement 
     the recommendations of the President's Blue Ribbon Commission 
     on America's Nuclear Future, which we're working to 
     reintroduce this year.
       The legislation complements Yucca Mountain, and would 
     create a new federal agency to find additional permanent 
     repositories and temporary facilities for used nuclear fuel. 
     But the quickest, and probably the least expensive, way for 
     the federal government to start to meet its used nuclear fuel 
     obligations is for the Department of Energy to contract with 
     a private storage facility for used nuclear fuel.
       Two years ago, you told this subcommittee that the 
     Department of Energy has the authority to take title to used 
     nuclear fuel, but you were hesitant to agree that it has the 
     authority to store the used fuel at a private facility 
     without more direction from Congress. I understand that two 
     private companies have submitted license applications to the 
     NRC for private consolidated storage facilities, one in Texas 
     and one in New Mexico, and that the NRC's review is well 
     underway.
       I look forward to working with Secretary Perry as we begin 
     putting together our Energy and Water Development 
     Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2020 and hearing what 
     Secretary Perry's priorities are. I also expect that the 
     Department will continue to fund projects consistent with 
     Congressional intent in the fiscal year 2019 Consolidated 
     Appropriations Act.
       I will now recognize Senator Feinstein for her opening 
     statement.

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