[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 27, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H5172-H5173]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY COMES UNDER SCRUTINY IN WAKE OF MISSING NUCLEAR 
                                SECRETS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 19, 1999, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the option to discuss with the 
House this morning an issue that does cause me quite a bit of concern. 
It really revolves around the missing nuclear secrets from the Los 
Alamos lab. We have spent about $16 billion a year on the Department of 
Energy; 15,000 plus employees, 125,000 contract employees and over $16 
billion of spending of the taxpayers' money. On their own website, they 
have the following two mission statements: To provide affordable and 
available fuel now and in the future, and the security of our nuclear 
weapons stockpile.
  It would seem to me based on those two statements, those two mission 
statements by the Department and the amount of money the American 
taxpayers have put into the fund in order to run the agency, you would 
have assumed with those types of numbers you would have gotten at least 
a modicum of success in protecting either the nuclear secrets or 
providing affordable energy for Americans now and in the future.
  I am sure some of you recently have had the pleasure and joy of 
filling up your car at the gas station and witnessed prices escalating 
almost at every week, an increase in prices of fuel. In some areas in 
my community, prices for regular unleaded are about $1.65 and in some 
places in the country, including the Midwest, we see prices upwards of 
$2.25. Is that affordable? Yes, it is available but is it affordable? 
And how much does that take out of the American family's budget weekly, 
money that they could spend on clothes for their kids, textbooks for 
school, health care or purchasing prescription drugs? It is a lot of 
money. Filling up a 20-gallon tank costs somewhere between 4 and 8 
additional dollars a week now due to the price of energy. Now, that is 
the administration that is doing America a favor by spending $16 
billion on the Department of Energy.
  We have heard recently that, of course, we do not think there was 
espionage involved. We do not know obviously because we are not certain 
where the disk drives were and who had them. But we are comforted by 
the fact that we are being told by the administration, at least by the 
Secretary of Energy, that we do not suspect espionage. Initially it was 
reported that there was a 4-week breach of time between the reporting 
of the missing hard drives and the notification to the FBI. Then we 
heard erroneous or maybe possibly accurate reports that it was upwards 
of 6 months when the hard drives were missing. Then on Meet the Press, 
Secretary Richardson said, ``Oh, no, it

[[Page H5173]]

wasn't that long, it was only possibly March 28.'' Talk about the gang 
that could not shoot straight, nobody can give us definitive answers 
where the hard drives were, how they were stored, how long they had 
been missing, and who checks in and out of this secret vault. Just last 
week testifying before the Senate, the Secretary said, we are going to 
institute technology like bar coding and putting bar codes onto the 
devices.
  I mean, we bar code lettuce in the grocery store. You cannot leave a 
record store without paying for the CD. Otherwise, the security devices 
at the door will make an alarm so that the detectives or guards there 
can try and stop a shoplifter. But the nuclear secrets of America, the 
most sensitive of all data stored by our government, is wandering 
around with nobody watching, nobody monitoring, nobody taking the 
blame.
  Mr. Speaker, we have got a serious issue on our hands. I think rather 
than politicize it, we need to get to the bottom of it. If this 
incident occurred to a corporation, the CEO's head would roll. If this 
announcement of this problem was a stock market activity, the stock 
would collapse. If this was a student in school, they would fail. 
Somebody has to take account for the pilferage or the potential misuse 
or even the missing hard drives.
  General Gordon with this House attempted to set up a separate nuclear 
agency, if you will, to run the very sensitive lab. We were rebuffed 
oftentimes by both the administration, the Secretary of Energy and 
others. I think we need a full and fair explanation of what happened. 
America deserves it. Our security depends on it.
  We urge the administration to come forward with an explanation 
reasonable to the taxpayers.

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