[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 71 (Monday, May 20, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5391-S5392]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                      U.S. ENRICHMENT CORPORATION

 Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, the press in Washington likes to 
highlight conflict and acrimony. In their quest to report the latest 
conflict between Congress and the President, Democrats and Republicans, 
or the House and the Senate, the media generally misses the story of 
Republicans and Democrats quietly sitting down together to work out 
very complex and difficult problems.
  This is a shame, because it leads people outside Washington to think 
that all we do around here is posture and fight--and that's just not 
true.
  Quite often, Congress and the Administration, the House and the 
Senate, Democrats and Republicans, labor and management, producers and 
consumers all sit down and work out difficult problems to everyone's 
mutual benefit. It often goes unnoticed. The press never writes a 
story. The public outside the beltway never hears about it. Such was 
the case with recent legislation to assist with the privatization of 
the U.S. Enrichment Corporation.
  Mr. President, this nation has a uranium enrichment enterprise dating 
back to the end of World War II. Most of the uranium that has powered 
reactors in North America, Europe, and Japan was enriched at plants in 
the United States, by U.S. workers. This enterprise has suffered under 
the yoke of government control, and it has steadily lost market share 
to competitors around the world. As a result, the maintenance of a 
secure, economical domestic enrichment capability was at stake.
  Certain members of the Senate recognized this problem early on. 
Senators Domenici, Ford and Johnston, in particular, worked to put the 
U.S. Enrichment Corporation, or USEC, on the path toward privatization 
years ago.

[[Page S5392]]

  I must confess, Mr. President, when I first became familiar with this 
issue as Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I was 
very concerned that a consensus might not be achievable.
  We had conflicts between the desire to implement a Russian enriched 
uranium purchase agreement and the legitimate interests of enrichment 
plant workers and uranium producers. We had conflicts between plant 
workers and plant management. We had conflicts between USEC and other 
entities that desired to get into the enrichment business. We had tough 
issues to resolve that impacted every player in the front end of the 
nuclear fuel cycle, including uranium producers, converters, enrichers, 
fuel fabricators, and utilities.
  To complicate the picture, we had to address all these thorny issues 
in a manner that would maximize USEC's value without inhibiting 
competition in the enrichment market.
  After hearings, a markup, and many months of work and negotiation 
between Senators, Senate staff, Members of the House, House staff, 
representatives of the Administration, uranium producers, labor unions, 
industry and many others, a bipartisan, bicameral bill slowly began to 
emerge. This was not always an easy negotiation, but those involved 
stuck with it to reach the best consensus achievable.
  Like any successful negotiation, all sides had to give a little. 
Nobody was completely happy. But we got it done and achieved a broad 
consensus.
  The USEC privatization bill was included in the reconciliation 
package which was vetoed for reasons having nothing to do with the USEC 
language. The USEC privatization bill was then presented as a stand-
alone bill that was placed on the Senate calendar, and the language 
emerging from our consensus was finally included in the Omnibus 
Appropriations bill that was recently signed by the President and 
enacted into law.
  I am pleased that the adoption of this measure will result in the 
long term viability of a secure, economical, domestic source of uranium 
production and enrichment while providing revenues exceeding a billion 
dollars for the U.S. Treasury.
  Mr. President, I want to publicly thank some of my colleagues who 
were so instrumental in making this bill a reality. Senators Domenici, 
Ford, Johnston, Thomas, and Campbell played key roles in the 
Committee's deliberations. Although they weren't on our Committee, 
Senators McConnell and DeWine worked behind the scenes, each bringing 
issues to my attention during difficult periods of the negotiation.
  In particular, I want to mention and praise the efforts of Senator 
Domenici and Alex Flint of his staff. Senator Domenici and Alex were 
working this measure on a daily basis throughout its formulation, 
introduction, hearings, markup, the budget reconciliation process, and 
the omnibus appropriations process. Senators Ford and Johnston, ably 
served by Sam Fowler, the Minority Chief Counsel of the Energy 
Committee, were instrumental and absolutely indispensable in the 
eventual success of the measure.
  At the Department of Energy, the personal and intense interest of 
Deputy Secretary Charles Curtis was a key to success. With Charlie's 
help we were able to break through some of the customary obstacles that 
arise in a protracted negotiation such as this.
  The consideration of this bill also brought to light a former Energy 
Committee staff member, Mr. Russ Brown, who now works for USEC in a 
Governmental Affairs capacity. Russ worked for me on the old Water and 
Power Subcommittee when I was first a subcommittee chairman. Russ got 
to walk the halls of the Senate once again during the consideration of 
this bill. If there is a bad outcome arising from this bill's passage, 
it's the fact that Russ can't hand around his beloved Senate anymore 
and must return to work at USEC's offices in Bethesda.
  Let me simply say that there are others I haven't specifically 
mentioned who deserve our thanks and recognition as well. They know who 
they are, and we are all indebted to their professionalism and 
perseverance.

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