[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 155 (Friday, November 5, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H11628-H11629]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            CRITICS QUESTION USEC'S REQUEST FOR $200 MILLION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about an issue 
that is of great importance to our Nation and I believe to our Nation's 
national security.
  A few months ago we chose unwisely, I believe, to privatize the 
uranium enrichment industry, taking this from a government-owned and 
operated industry and turning it over to the private sector.
  Now, the Government supposedly received about $1.9 billion from the 
sale of this industry, but immediately after privatization, or shortly 
after privatization, we forced the taxpayers to spend $325 million to 
keep a deal with the Russians, enabling us to bring materiel from their 
dismantled warheads into our country. This private industry is now 
asking for an additional $200 million bailout from this Congress and 
from the taxpayer.
  Jonathan Riskind, who writes for the Columbus Dispatch, has recently 
authored an article on this privatization arrangement and the request 
for $200 million, and I would like to share some of the comments that 
were contained in Mr. Riskind's Columbus Dispatch article.
  He begins by saying the Federal corporation that was created to cut 
the costs of running Southern Ohio's uranium enrichment plant wants a 
$200 million bailout from the taxpayer. Critics, ranging from lawmakers 
to arms control experts, say the request is further evidence, further 
evidence, that officials made a bad decision in privatizing the United 
States Enrichment Corporation.
  At its plants in Piketon, Ohio, and in Paducah, Kentucky, USEC 
converts

[[Page H11629]]

low-grade Russian uranium into enriched uranium to be used for fuel for 
nuclear power plants as part of the Swords-Into-Plowshares deal entered 
into with Russia in 1993.
  Mr. Riskind further says that this bailout request might intensify 
the push for congressional hearings about the Clinton administration's 
decision to push forward with privatization of the Nation's uranium 
enrichment operations. A privatization investigation launched by the 
House Committee on Commerce was first disclosed in August by the 
Columbus Dispatch.
  Mr. Speaker, what we have here is a case where a company has been 
privatized and over the course of the last year, they have given 
dividends to their private investors of about $100 million, dividends 
which exceeded the profits of that company. They also are paying 
exceedingly high salaries to their executive staff, in some cases 
including stock options worth well over $2 million. They also have 
spent this last year about $100 million to purchase back their own 
stock in order to prop up the value of their own stock, and yet they 
are now coming to the taxpayers of this country saying we need a $200 
million bailout or else we may have to withdraw as the executive agent 
of the Russian HEU deal.
  This, in my judgment, is a rip-off of the taxpayer, and I plead with 
the Members of this body not to let this happen. If this private 
company wants a $200 million bailout from the taxpayer, there ought to 
be some strings attached. They ought to open up their books. We ought 
to know exactly why they are paying such exceedingly high dividends, 
dividends which exceed the profits of the company, why they are paying 
such high executive salaries, why they spent $100 million to purchase 
back their own stock, and then they are crying that without a 
government bailout they may have to withdraw as the executive agent of 
this exceedingly important national security issue.
  I plead with my colleagues to investigate this issue. I know it is 
esoteric, I know it is complex, I know it is not easily understood; but 
it is a matter that is of critical importance to the national security 
of this Nation, and communities may face economic decimation if we 
allow this corporation to continue to look after itself and its 
employees and its shareholders, and to ignore what is right and best 
for this country and for our local domestic workers and for the local 
communities who have borne the burden of winning the Cold War for this 
country over the years.

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