Senate Proceeding on Dec 22nd, 2010 :: 1:10:20 to 1:14:15
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1:10:16 to 1:10:36( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: necessarily do because of congress and other things that are tied to it. so, reserve the balance of my mr. alexander: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee is recognized. mr. alexander: wonder if i might have four or five minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: i listened to senator kerry's remarks just now.

1:10:20 to 1:14:15( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Lamar Alexander

1:10:37 to 1:10:58( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: this is an excellent discussion. not only do i applaud senator kyl for resurrecting the whole focus on nuclear modernization, i applaud the president for the updated report that was received on november 17. a lot of work was done. this is a lot of money to say we want to make sure these nuclear

1:10:59 to 1:11:20( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: weapons work and we're going to spend $85 billion over ten years. the intent of senator kyl's amendment, though, is not to tie the president's hands. it's to really give him more options. i think it's to encourage this big slow-moving government not to waste money but to save money. i mean, the language says the

1:11:21 to 1:11:43( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: president shall certify to the senate the president intends to accelerate to the extent possible the design and engineering phase. now, at the oak ridge facilities, which senator kyl visited, he was told that the savings annually to taxpayers of

1:11:44 to 1:12:05( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: having the new facility versus the old facility is in excess of $200 million. so every year we do it -- every year this is completed, the taxpayers save $200 million. so if the president and the authorization committee -- the appropriations committee should decide that a two- or three-year

1:12:06 to 1:12:28( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: advanced funding will save $200 million a year at a time when we're all dedicated trying to save money, we should do that. you might say why do we need to say this in the senate? the answer is we've never done it before. and the united states government, if you've never done it before, it takes a little nudge to pay attention to it. senator kyl made an amendment,

1:12:29 to 1:12:50( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: and then if i understand it correctly, senator kerry amended the amendment a little bit to make it softer, to say the president intends to accelerate to the extent possible. so this is suggesting to the department of energy, which has never done it this way before, that we think it's a good idea if it's practical and if it saves money. there's also the matter of

1:12:51 to 1:13:11( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: getting it done on time. senator kyl talked about that, the dates we talked about in the executive session. so i would argue to my colleagues that the kyl amendment is respectful of the president's prerogatives, which he ought to have. he's the commander of the government, he's the commander in chief.

1:13:12 to 1:13:33( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: it says if we can think of a way to do this in a way that saves $200 million a year, year after year after year, why shouldn't we do it? i bet during the next session of congress if we do our job properly in this body, we're going to be competing with each other to find ways to save $10

1:13:34 to 1:13:54( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: million a year, $20 million a year, $100 million a year because of the incredible deficit. we've got bipartisan concern about that deficit. we had tkhraoe -- two democratic senators and three republican senators support the debt commission. i'd suggest to my friend from massachusetts that isn't it

1:13:55 to 1:14:16( Edit History Discussion )

Lamar Alexander: possible that you've modified the kyl amendment to the extent that it ought to be accepted so that the president can get a signal from the senate that if he thinks -- if he thinks he can do this to the extent possible, that accelerating the building of these big facilities by two