Fiscal Year 2027 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Bill

Good morning, everyone. The subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and related agencies will come to order. I'd like to welcome everyone to the subcommittee mark-up of the fiscal year twenty twenty seven Energy and Water Development and related agencies' appropriations bills. I'm pleased to be joined by subcommittee ranking member, Captur, full committee chairman Cole, ranking member DeLauro, and members of the subcommittee. The fiscal twenty twenty seven energy and water bill demonstrates our commitment to safeguarding US national security, unleashing American energy dominance, and advancing our economic prosperity. The recommendation totals fifty eight point five billion dollars, an increase of four hundred and sixty-one million dollars above fiscal year twenty twenty-six. The bill delivers a historic investment in our national f- defense by providing twenty-seven point one billion dollars, an increase of one point seven billion dollars above fiscal twenty-six for the National Nuclear Security Administration, prioritizing the continued modernization of the nuclear weapons stockpile and the United States Navy nuclear fleet. We continue to fulfill our legacy responsibilities to remediate contaminated sites by funding Department of Energy clean-up activities at a total of seven point seven billion dollars. The bill strengthens our nation's energy security prioritizing research and development efforts on base load energy sources and maintaining funding for programs that deliver affordable energy prices for Americans. That's a priority for which we can all find common ground. To further the Trump administration's efforts to expand domestic nuclear energy capacity, the bill includes one point eight billion dollars for base nuclear energy programs and additional funding to accelerate deployments of advanced reactors and strengthen the domestic nuclear fuel cycle. These funds will advance American leadership in the nuclear market and promote long-term US energy security. In support of the administration's focus on ensuring our nation makes efficient use of its vast fossil fuels resources, the bill makes strong investments to continue to secure our domestic supply chain of critical minerals and reduce reliance on foreign sources. Our national security and economic vitality are built upon our nation's scientific and technological leadership. The bill includes eight point five billion dollars for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, to ensure America remains at the forefront of scientific discovery and innovation. The bill supports Trump administration's Genesis mission, which will harness our high-performance computing capabilities and leverage AI to help address our greatest scientific challenges. This bill also advances our economic prosperity and promotes public safety. The bill includes nine point eight billion dollars for the Army Corps of Engineers, including full funding of the Harbor Maintenance Trust fund activities.

Mm.

The bill also provides funding to continue construction for ongoing inland navigation projects, to ensure the safe and efficient flow of commerce, for projects to prom- to protect communities from flooding. Funding for the Bureau of Reclamation totals one point eight billion dollars and increase of more than two hundred million above the The bill prioritizes projects that increase water supply, assist drought resilience, and support rural America. Overall, this is a fiscally responsible bill that will strengthen our national security and advance our energy independence. I would like to thank all the members of the subcommittee for their valuable input in helping shape this bill. The subcommittee received nearly sixty-seven hundred requests from members for community project funding, programmatic funding, and the bill and bill report language. We have attempted to address these requests for both Republicans and Democrats within the overall priorities of the bill. Last but certainly not least, I would like to sta thank the staff on both sides of the aisle for their hard work on this bill. And let me take a pause here. Uh before I became chairman, I would hear uh Chairman, Subcommittee Chairman, thank their staffs. I can tell you this, our majority and minority staffs have worked so well. This is not easy work, it's extremely difficult. I could not do my job without Laura, her staff, and our friends on the minority. Uh, sincerely thank you, it's been a privilege to work with you, not only in the past but but now, and I look forward to working uh together with all of you as this bill moves forward. I'd ask for your support of this legislation, and I'm gonna say this. I made a personal effort to reach out to try to get certain things in here, um, candidly uh, to try to get a bipartisan bill. I'm not gonna give up on that effort. It is a good bill. The energy and water bill should be a bill that we can get bipartisan support on, so I'm gonna continue to work towards those goals. I now recognize the ranking member, Kapta, for her remarks, but before I do that, Uh, the coffee and donuts are on the way. I don't know. Ian, um, it's not your fault.

Oh yeah.

I've heard, I've heard, I've heard that. But please check on that. We've heard that before. Sorry, I'm gonna get a, I'm gonna get a call. Please check on that. Um, it's it's on its way. Uh, my dear friend, Miss Captor.

Thank you, uh, Mister Chairman. Thank you for your gracious, uh, chairmanship of this committee and, uh, every member who is here. Uh, we have almost a full committee present, and, uh, we're here to mark up the fiscal twenty twenty seven energy and water development Appropriations Bill. Uh, Chairman Fleishman, please know I truly enjoy working with you. You're a man of your word. And to all of our colleagues, we're all friends, uh, to develop what we hope could be a bipartisan bill. This has long been this committee's, this subcommittee's practice. So I have to say I'm a bit disappointed that with this worthy objective, uh, uh, we have engaged in a rather partisan process and I hope, uh, as the future dawns and soon, we can course correct with your leadership and our strong uh working partnership both together and with the members on both sides of the aisle here. Let me thank our diligent staff on both sides for all their hard work, from the minority staff, Scott McKee, Ippo Delatoulis, and Adam Wilson, and on my personal staff, Jed Bullock and Margaret McGinnis. I really wanna thank them all. They're really fine, honest people. Turning to the uh substance of the bill, Uh, US energy independence must be our objective. We've not had it in my entire lifetime, and we're not moving it to the future as fast as we should. The US national security requires US energy security. I'm gonna say that again. US national security requires US energy security. The current bill before us must be adapted to better meet the growing energy challenges before our nation and the cost of that energy to our people. My strong view is that a bipartisan compromise can be crafted and it's gonna take a little more work. Unique challenges here at home face all of us. We are living again in an historical moment in which energy and war are hyperlinked. Global disruptions in oil routes rooted in the Middle East are ca- causing our economy to nosedive. And I have a chart I'm gonna ask Scott to hold up. Uh, due to President Trump's war of choice on Iran, gas prices have already risen to average four dollars and fifty cents per gallon. Uh, we have a chart, one that shows, going back about forty years, I served President Jimmy Carter in the White House when that horrible, horrible moment came in American history, and we really haven't recovered fully from that. Um, prices rise we always come into recession and we are already in one, it's gonna get worse. Our citizenry is suffering from rising costs for everything, for transportation, for fuel, for heating, for electricity, and uh we as a country are still mired in the past. Further, new AI and data facilities are causing energy and water prices to skyrocket for local rate payers. There's hardly been a hearing in the Congress on this issue. And I can tell you in my part of the country, it is radioactive, and I would venture to say probably in yours. A fair energy cost structure must attend to these mammoth facilities and help local rate payers. We as a Congress have an obligation as the future dawns to make sure that we defend our people. The imperative of US energy independence should be clear. I cannot compliment enough those folks across our country who work on creating sound, clean, competitive advances in fusion energy, in thermal energy, in nuclear energy, in clean energy, and in many new forms of energy that are arising from the creativity and innovation of the American people in biofuels, in building materials, in geothermal, and in energy conservation. I was gonna ask Scott to hold up a second chart, um, that has to do with the cost of war. And most of the recent wars in which we have been engaged have oil at the very basis. And if you look back forty, fifty years in our country's history, the cost of our dependence on fuels that have a connection to global supplies, cause the kind of situation that we are enduring right now, and our people are enduring in this country. So it's really important that we reach a bipartisan agreement, because we have amassed trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars of debt on wars that root in oil kingdoms and disrupt global supplies. America cannot be, continue to be in this position to be so vulnerable. Um, and we need competitiveness. in the energy sector, so we can't just depend on one sector. We have to play the piano on many keys. First, there must be a revision in balances of top-line funding between the defend the non-defense funding in this bill which supports domestic energy and water programs versus defense funding that is my first deep concern about this bill to date defense programs are increased by seven hundred and seventy-four million dollars uh which is two percent over last year, while non-defense programs are cut by one point eight billion dollars or six percent. This imbalance needs correction because that is where innovation lies, in the part of the bill that has been cut. The most harmful cuts in this bill include a one point three billion dollar cut or forty percent to critical materials and energy innovation. I invite you all to my district to see innovation in the energy field. You will not believe it when you see it. This side of the aisle seeks no less than three point one billion dollars to accelerate US strategic interests to meet global competition for a clean energy future. A fifty million dollar cut also is in the base bill or fourteen percent to the Advanced Research Projects Agency on energy. That's where we need to invest. We can't live in the past. We seek no less than three hundred and fifty million dollars for critical research into transformative energy technologies. A twenty-five million dollar cut sits in the base bill for electricity and grid deployment programs. Friends, we have an old grid all over the country. We seek no less than two hundred and sixty million dollars for these activities, to drive down the cost of electricity, which are doubling for the constituents that I represent, and I would dare say probably you as well. We can't live in the past. A two hundred and fifty-two million dollar cut, or twelve percent, occurs in this bill for nuclear non-proliferation activities. We seek no less than two point three six seven billion dollars to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and detect covert nuclear threats worldwide. Finally, a total one hundred percent elimination of funding for the Army Corps formally utilized Sites Remedial Action Program, FUSRAP, is unacceptable, period. We seek no less than two hundred million dollars for this program to continue cleaning up contaminated sites. Why would we not want to do that fully as soon as we can, resulting from our nation's early atomic energy program? And further, the bill cuts other programs that would need adjustments addressed. Critically, the bill should only repurpose funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act if the changes are bipartisan and embrace an all of the above energy strategy. That means supporting a div- a diverse portfolio of technologies like geothermal, electric grid upgrades, fusion, and advanced nuclear. And I know th- how committed the chairman is to that, and let me end with this. This bill must also be free of rioters, including provisions that allow firearms on core of engineers' public lands, prohibit clean energy solutions for new and renovated federal buildings, and prohibit funds for private consolidated interim storage of commercial spent nuclear uh fuel. And finally, the glaringly, the bill is missing key provision necessary to protect Congress's power of the purse. Any bill we move forward must include a provision to prevent in reverse the Department of Energy's project terminations to date. On the record, let me say, DOE has terminated over nine billion dollars for more than three hundred projects nationwide duly authorized appropriated and passed by former Congresses and signed by Presidents. Finally, the bill should include common sense provisions providing transparency and accountability for how federal agencies spend the funds Congress provides. Unfortunately, until these changes are made I must urge my colleagues to oppose the bill in its current form. Thank you, Mister Chairman, let's try to work together to improve it as it moves forward and meets the new age frontiers of energy and water that requires an improved bill. I yield back.

I thank the ranking member for her comments. At this time, I would like to recognize the distinguished chairman, our distinguished chairman, of the full committee, Mister Cole, for his remarks.

Thank you, Chairman Fleischman, and thank you, Ranking Member Ranking Member Delora, always a pleasure to be with you and frankly to all the members on both sides of the aisle in the subcommittee. I'm gonna give you my official statement, then I have a couple of reflections I wanna make afterwards. Uh, today's measure delivers on America's energy imperative, dominance that fuels our strength, prosperity and growth. Under President Trump's leadership, we are once again focused on resources that support our nation's ability to out, innovate, outbuild and outpower the world. This bill reflects that agenda in every way. It advances activities to further unleash domestic production of critical minerals and reduce reliance on foreign supply. It unlocks technological innovations to propel advancements for the future, including support for the White House's D- Genesis mission. Uh, and it produces robust funding for high-priority inland and coastal navigation f- flood control and drought resilient pro- projects. Importantly, this legislation also makes us uh more secure. With a focus on strengthening base load energy sources and advancing nuclear capabilities we reinforce American energy security. And we also prioritize cyber security efforts that enable a resilient electric grid. And we bolster our national defense by modernizing the nuclear weapons stockpile and supporting a nuclear navy. Chairman Fleischman has developed a bill that strengthens our national security, energy security, and continues to unlock America's full energy potential. I thank him, ranking member cepter, and the majority of the minority staff for their hard work. I look forward to supporting today's measure with that. Uh I'll yield back in just a second. I just wanted to uh you know you know look around this room and number one I just wanted to compliment you Mm. and the ranking member uh because we all know there's a process in developing relationships or developing legislation at the end of the day, all these appropriations bills really depend on the relationship the two of you, the chairman and the ranking member of every one of these subcommittees has with one another because you're gonna make most of the decisions are gonna be made at your level they're not gonna be made uh at Miss Dolores' level and my level, I know we both prefer that you guys make these decisions and Mm. Uh we're damn sure not gonna send anything up above us if we can possibly avoid it, and we were able to do that last time and that's why eleven out of twelve of these bills got done, because we had good relationships between cardinals and ranking members and we kept the decision making where is the most informed and the least political, and that's at the subcommittee level. Every level it moves up, it becomes less informed and more political. Uh and frankly, I love leadership staff on both sides of the aisle. Trust Appropriations staff at the subcommittee level. They know the business. They've been in the hearings. They've put together. So uh I just wanna compliment the two of you. I've I've watched you develop a friendship and a relationship over your time together. You guys work together well. I look around this room, I know how well uh you know, Chairman Calvert works with Betty McCollum. I know how well uh Mike Simpson works with Pindri. I know how well Mister Clyburn works with uh Womack. And that's been the basis of the success we had. We're gonna continue that way. So we'll have some differences. We'll have a committee meeting. That's fine. We'll work some of those out. We listen to what people are saying. But the end of day, the real negotiation is gonna be uh at your level. And I have a lot of confidence in you, Mister Fleischman, and you, Miss Kaptur, that it will be a good product at the end of the day that you both can vote for. And that's the aim of the whole process here. It's not to score political points is to get us to the negotiation table where the two of you can sit down and make the real decisions that affect this bill and we can advance it, uh hopefully in a bipartisan way, which I know uh my friend and ranking member of the full committee uh tries to do too, and that's why we got eleven out of twelve across. We got all twelve across here, uh and we knew you had some things you had to worry about on your side, uh on the twelfth bill, uh and we tried to make accommodations for that to to allow you to do that. Uh and uh the thing I'll commit to you is we'll do it, but we won't do any better than you and and Miss Captor do uh working together. I mean we depend on you and uh I just say that to all the members of the subcommittee, this committee produced really good work last time, really good work. Uh and it was a bill that we could all get around and at the end once it was finally negotiated support. So I look forward to that. I wanna thank uh Mr. Chairman Yu and the ranking member for getting us started down that road. And uh we'll do our part.

Uh, I wanna thank the full committee chairman for his kind words of advice, and we will continue to heed those. And and yes, our last work product, uh along with my distinguished friend Mr. Simpson's work product, gained four hundred nineteen votes on the floor, which is was incredible. Uh, so thank you. And we're gonna continue to work in that regard. At this time, I now recognize the distinguished ranking member of the full committee, Mister Loro, for her remarks.

Thank you so much, Mister Chairman, and thank you t to you and to uh ranking member, Captor, for the figu the great work in the past and at the present and continues into the future. Uh and always happy to recognize uh uh my my friend and my colleague, uh Cha- Chairman Cole, and I couldn't agree more on um the need for whatever uh differences there may be, that those are worked out at the uh a subcommittee, full committee level, uh uh because I again and I I concur the further it moves up the chain, uh the the less knowledge there is and the more political it gets. Uh so that I think that people in this room, uh the members of the subcommittees and the staff uh certainly um are the most knowledgeable about what is in the bill and what has to be done. So I am uh uh uh uh y- you know, look forward to how we can work together uh to pass all twelve bills um uh as we as we move forward. And um uh so I wanna say a thank you as well to the committee s- ga- staff, to Scott McKee, to Ipo De Los Tolos, Adam Wilson, minority side, and Laura Zitzikel, Perry Yates, uh Corey Kuypers and uh Ray Ray Burbuckley for the majority. I wanna say thank you for your work. We don't sit here except for the work that you do and are much appreciated. Um I will s uh start where I am today in opposing the bill before us. Um it raises energy costs for middle class working families and vulnerable Americans who struggle today uh to afford the basic necessities of everyday life. Threatens our national security, it cuts funds used to

So

stop the spread of nuclear weapons. And it exposes communities to radioactive waste, reducing funding used to control and clean up hazardous nuclear sites uh throughout the country. Uh American families are struggling to keep up with rising costs today, living paycheck to paycheck. And based on inflation data released earlier this month, price increases have now outpaced wage growth for the first time since twenty twenty three. And one of the central factors driving the cost of living crisis is the rising cost of energy. Utility bills keep going up, and instead of providing relief, um, Republicans' plan is to cut back on programs that support our energy independence, increase our energy supply, and help drive costs down. The bill before was slash is funding for the Department of Energy's critical minerals and energy innovation account, which was previously called the energy efficient and renewable energy This one point three billion forty percent cut weakens American competitiveness at the same time that global adversaries like China are redoubling their investments in energy of the future. Failing to invest in clean energy sources here at home leaves us vulnerable. As we speak, Iran continues to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz, driving up prices for American families. The president's war in Iran has driven the cost of gasoline up by forty percent. further exacerbating the crisis. If we want to mitigate these effects, we need to invest in alternative sources of energy. This bill threatens our national security by cutting funding for the Nuclear National Security Administration's account for defense nuclear nonproliferation by two hundred and eighty-two million dollars, or twelve percent. This hampers our efforts to track down, to secure, and dispose of material that can be used to develop a nuclear weapon. It makes it harder for us to stop the most dangerous weapons humanity has ever known from falling into the wrong hands. It is shocking that this cut is being proposed, as the president pursues his costly war with Iran under the pretense of preventing nuclear proliferation. If we are serious about stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and nuclear material, why are we cutting funding to the program that does just that? Additionally, this bill would burden our communities by halting or slowing down ongoing clean up of radioactive waste left over from the America's atomic weapons development. The Army Corps of Engineers has made progress managing the clean up and control of these areas, but this bill eliminates all funding for their programs, even as they still preside over twenty active sites. Lastly, the bill cuts the Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Management by eight hundred and sixty-three billion dollars, This slows down clean up of some of the most complicated radioactive clean up sites across the country in Washington, South Carolina, Idaho, and Tennessee. At a time when Americans are struggling to navigate rapidly rising costs, when our adversaries are increasing their investments in the technologies of the future, and when our communities remain burdened by the hazardous remnants of our atomic weapons program. This bill fails to meet that moment. I encourage my colleagues to vote no on the measure, to work together on a bipartisan basis, to craft an agreement that supports our communities, protects our national security, and invests in the future. Thank you and I yield back.

I thank the ranking member, and by the way, person of my word, the coffee and tidings have arrived. Little bit late, but better late than never. Um thank you. Um, so please, bon appetit. Do any other members wish to make any opening remarks? Yes, um, well, I'm gonna recognize Mister Cloud, my Vice-Chairman, and then we'll we'll go to Mister Levin. Yes, Vice-Chair Cloud.

Thank you, Chairman, uh I'll keep this brief, because I know we got a lot of work to do in a short time, but I I wanted to thank you for your work on this, you and the team. Uh, have done an excellent job on this bill, appreciate the work you've done to travel the country, to listen to people. uh to prioritize pragmat pragmatism in uh energy production, in us making sure our ports are secure, and all all the priorities that are in this bill. Um in times past we've thrown literally billions of dollars at projects we would say were energy innovation when they didn't actually produce any energy at all uh in the meantime we're in a race uh against China for AI, which is actually a race for energy production in our country, and so the need for us to ramp up pretty quickly. Energy production in this country is so so important, and and you all prioritize it in this bill. Uh wanted to thank you for that. It's uh thank you a in your travels you always came to our district, so really appreciated that. Uh enjoyed traveling with you and the team up the Texas coasts, and uh that was a lot of fun. So thank you for that as well. Uh this bill does a a number of things, including increasing investments toward nuclear energy projects, quantum computing, artificial intelligence efforts, prioritizes work on critical minerals and energy innovation, increases funding to the Bureau of Reclamation, specifically targeting water supply, drought response, storage projects, which are essential for regions like mine where water is essential to economic opportunity and actually national security as well, fully funds the Army Corps of Engineers in high priority projects, including our ports that keep America running. Thank you for your great work on this. It's been an honor and a privilege to work with you on this and the team. And I look forward to seeing this bill uh move forward. Thanks so much. Appreciate your work.

I thank the Vice Chairman for his comments and and for all your help with this bill. This time I'd like to recognize my friend and colleague from California, Mister Levin.

Well, I thank the Chairman, I thank the Ranking Member, and uh I can just tell you I personally am quite disappointed that we couldn't get there with a bipartisan bill here. I really hope that we will. I am so grateful for the Chairman's sincere efforts to to get there and for the ranking members since your efforts associate myself with Chairman Kohl's comments. And I I really hope that uh we can get there and and ranking member DeLauro as well. I know that we all were hoping that it would happen. Um and I I will just say a couple things um I cuz I hope there are areas where I I can find common ground. President was just in China and as you just said, China, they are not waiting for America anymore. They are leading the world. when it comes to clean energy manufacturing, clean energy deployment. And for me, the presence this uh visit this week was a reminder of how much leverage the clean energy leadership gives Beijing. And if we wanna compete, and I I believe we must compete, uh n- there's nothing political about it. Uh this is our economy, this is our strategic power in the world. We've gotta take down the roadblocks to solar, to batteries, to advanced nuclear, and yes, to even wind, that um you know are currently up and and you know that that have been put up in the last year. Uh and with that, when we take those batteries down, we'll also build the workforce uh that can compete. And and this is the most important global energy transition since the Industrial Revolution. Simple as that. The countries that can deploy the clean energy the fastest, are the ones who are going to lower costs, strengthen domestic manufacturing, drive innovation, secure control over the energy supply chain. That'll define economic power for the rest of our lives, and our kids' lives, and our grandkids' lives. So where I take issue is that over the past year about a hundred eighty thousand clean energy jobs have been wiped out or delayed in the United States. These are projects that would have powered fourteen point six million homes, and they've been either canceled or frozen. Now we can argue about the clean energy tax credits. I certainly know we we have, but the grants that have been rescinded are really, really key here. And the permitting for wind and solar, it is under a blockade for both public lands and private lands. You've had billions in private investment that are sitting idle because federal policy has injected uncertainty into the marketplace. At the same time, the DOE and I, to be clear, I like Chris Wright as a as a person. They are forcing old expensive power plants to stay online, despite in some cases local grid operators and the utilities themselves pleading to let the plants shut down and be replaced with newer more affordable power sources. All of this leaves us vulnerable to the competition with China. It leaves our constituents exposed to volatile global markets and rising prices, which we've all been feeling acutely, of course, in the last couple of months. So We went through in in full committee went through the whole uh levelized cost of energy yesterday so I won't do that again but I'll just repeat that wind and solar on an unsubsidized basis are cheaper than new coal and frequently undercut new natural gas generation it's not ideological just math so if we restrict the cheapest sources of new electricity while demand rises prices will continue to go up. If we delay transmission build-out and limit things like energy storage, then the system relies more heavily on higher cost generation. All of our constituents will pay the difference. So what I hope where I hope we can get is a massive deployment of the lowest cost resources, a modernization of our grid, reducing volatility, increasing our competitiveness with China, and starting to bring costs down. So that's what I hope we can aspire towards. Mister Chairman, I so appreciate our friendship, and uh with that I'll yield back.

Thank the gentleman for his comments. Do any other members wish to make any comments? Mister Mervin.

Thank you, mis- thank you, Mister Chairman. Uh, I of course want to thank Chairman Cole, Ranking Member DeLauro, Chairman Fleischman, and Ranking Member Captor for the opportunity to speak on fiscal year twenty-seven energy and water appropriations bill. Over the last year I've had countless conversations with constituents who are shocked and angry when they open their utility bills. On average, families in Northwest Indiana have seen their utility rates jump more than twenty-six and these costly increases are making it difficult for seniors, families, and hard-working Americans to keep their lights on. The work we do in this committee has a direct impact for the families in my area and across the country who are feeling the effects of this financial strain. It is a critical that we support federal policies that expand energy supply, support good paying jobs, and bring real relief. Unfortunately, this bill falls short of these goals. Instead, the cuts included bill will slash American jobs, raise energy costs, and make us less safe. This bill doubles down on cuts to energy, innovation, large scale energy projects that would strengthen our energy security, generate thousands of good paying jobs, and enhance our global competitiveness. This includes a fifty million dollar cut to the Advanced Research Projects Agency. ARPA-E provides support for research projects that drive innovation that keep our advanced manufacturing industries globally competitive. At Purdue University Northwest, for example, researchers work hand-in-hand with the domestic steel industry to improve efficiency, drive workforce development, and improve workforce safety. These dollars are critical for the transformative research and supports and continued dominance of American steel which in turn means good paying American jobs for generations to come. The bill also conti- continues to revoke investments provided under bipartisan infrastructure law that will lower energy costs, strengthen our energy security, and improve our air quality in our communities. I will underscore that the canceled hydrogen hub in Northwest Indiana was slated to create twelve thousand direct jobs. The continued cuts to energy innovation project projects are irresponsible and come at a direct cost to jobs across the country. On the defense side, I'm also concerned about the twelve percent cut to the defense nuclear non-perforation account. Underfunding ef essential non-perforational programs makes it more difficult to combat threat of nuclear terrorism at a time when our adversaries are strengthening and investing in their nuclear arsenals. Finally, I'm grateful to the committee for con continuing to include funding for the Army Corps of Engineers for the maintenance of commercial and recreational harbors, for the improving of clean water infrastructure, for residents of Northwest Indiana. However, I remain concerned about the lack of transparency throughout this budgetary process, largely driven by the Congressional Communications Directive that limits Corps' ability to work closely with the members of this committee to identifying funding needs. This bill makes more than fifty percent cut to the harbors in my district, Indiana Harbor, and Burns-Waterway Harbor, service major industrial manufacturing hubs. The largest oil refinery in the Midwest and the nation's largest concentration of steel production. It is critical that these harbors receive the funding they need. The Energy and Water Appropriations Bill is intended to promote economic and environmental health, in our communities, lower costs for hardworking families, and address the threat of nuclear perforation, these projects should not be partisan. And just to add to what Mister Levin said, uh, particularly in my area, utility bills have gone up. Uh, when Mister Wright came before us, we had the conversation about, uh, a mandate or executive order to keep a coal-fired burned power plant open that cost a hundred million dollars to the utilities, which therefore puts a tariff on the rate payers, where the week before they celebrated, the secretary of energy celebrated opening up two natural gas power plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio. So it was good enough for Pennsylvania and Ohio, but yet my rate payers are forced to have a coal plant that cost them a hundred million dollars. I just take that all into consideration for the innovation going forward, and I thank the committee for allowing me to have the opportunity

Thank the gentleman for his comments. Are there any other members who would like to speak on the bill? Seeing none, um and seeing no amendments, I now recognize the distinguished Vice Chair, uh, Mister Cloud, for the purpose of making a motion.

Mister Chairman, I move that the bill be favorably reported to the full committee.

The question is on the motion. Those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye. Those opposed say no.

No. No.

My opinion, the ayes have it. The motion is agreed to.

Next please.

I ask unanimous consent that the staff be permitted to make technical and conforming changes to the bill and report without objection, so ordered. Copies of the bill and the report with the technical and conforming changes will be delivered to all full committee members' offices no later than three business days before full committee. Wanna thank everyone very much again for their attendance today. That concludes today's mark-up. The committee now stands adjourned. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.