[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 206 (Thursday, December 14, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5983-S5985]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 1042

  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, we heard a lot about Russia here. We 
heard a lot about enabling and empowering Vladimir Putin, empowering 
him financially.
  I am here today to offer and support legislation that will defund 
Vladimir Putin; that will take a billion dollars of U.S. money out of 
his pocket. I am here today and rise in support of H.R. 1042. It 
prohibits Russian uranium imports.
  For years, Russia's state-owned nuclear monopoly has dumped 
artificially cheap uranium into our American market. And as a result of 
all of this, Russia and Putin have gained a commanding share of the 
whole world's nuclear fuel supply chain.
  Russia has driven America's nuclear fuel suppliers out of business--
completely out of business--and Russia has put Americans out of work. 
That is what I am bringing here today because we are sending, roughly, 
a billion dollars a year to Russia for uranium. We need to stop that. 
We need to block it.
  We are now at a point where the United States cannot even fuel our 
own next generation of advanced nuclear reactors. If Congress doesn't 
step in, these advanced reactors will have no other choice than to be 
dependent on Russian uranium.
  To make matters worse, we now know that Vladimir Putin is using 
Russia's nuclear monopoly--to use that money to fund this brutal 
invasion of Ukraine that we have just been discussing here on the 
Senate floor. Russia's nuclear monopoly has also helped Putin evade 
sanctions and provide equipment and materiels to Russia's military in 
Ukraine.
  None of this should surprise us. That is who Vladimir Putin is. He 
has created--created--Russia's nuclear monopoly. We shouldn't be 
shocked that he has turned it into his piggy bank and his toolkit for 
his regime.
  It is time the American people in this country stop funding Russia's 
nuclear monopoly. We can do this, and we could do it right here today, 
by ending Russian imports of uranium into the United States.
  Ending Russian imports would provide certainty to America's nuclear 
fuel suppliers--those suppliers that Russia cannot undermine again. We 
cannot allow that to happen. It would also ensure that we are not 
financing and continuing to finance Putin's war in Ukraine.
  On Monday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1042 with 
unanimous support. This bill would end imports of Russian uranium 
within 90 days and, therefore, end this billion dollars a year of 
American money going to fuel Russia's war machine.
  H.R. 1042 is a companion to a bipartisan bill that I have introduced 
along with my bipartisan cosponsor, Senator Manchin, as well as Senator 
Risch--both of whom are on the floor right now.
  The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee unanimously passed 
out our bill in May. It is a bill that we developed in collaboration 
with America's nuclear industry and the Department of Energy and other 
Agencies.

  As I get ready to offer a unanimous consent request, I would yield to 
Senator Risch for a brief statement.
  Mr. RISCH. Thank you, Senator.
  I want to join my good friend from Wyoming in this really important 
issue.
  We are talking here today about enriched uranium, a commodity that is 
absolutely critical to America. Not only is it an energy security 
issue, it is a national security imperative.
  Right now, we get about one-fifth of our enriched uranium out of 
Russia. What is that doing? It is doing a number of things. No. 1, it 
gives Russia control over the supply, but just as importantly, at the 
same time, it is helping finance Russia's war against Ukraine.
  It is past time that we end this dependence on or even use of any 
kind of Russian-enriched uranium.
  Congress took a tremendous step by passing the Nuclear Fuel Security 
Act,

[[Page S5984]]

which Senator Barrasso, Senator Manchin, and I introduced to enhance 
domestic uranium conversion and enrichment capacity, which is 
desperately needed. Now we have to provide a pathway to enhance 
domestic nuclear fuel production.
  We need to provide certainty both here at home and to the world that 
a reliance on Russian fuel is over, once and for all. This is our 
opportunity to do it here.
  Russia is going to suffer consequences from its attack on Ukraine for 
generations to come. I don't think they have fully figured that out 
yet. But this is just a tip of the iceberg as to what is coming for 
them. We need to cut it off.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to pass H.R. 1042, which, as the 
Senator from Wyoming mentioned, was unanimously passed out of the House 
of Representatives earlier this week. It will be a companion to the 
bill that we passed earlier this year.
  This is a really, really good step forward and an incredibly good 
step forward.
  With that, I will yield to Senator Manchin.
  Mr. MANCHIN. I yield back to Senator Barrasso.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Thank you, Senators.
  Madam President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent 
that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1042, 
which was received from the House; further, that the bill be considered 
read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. BROWN. I reserve the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I agree with my colleagues Senator 
Manchin, Senator Barrasso, and Senator Risch. We need energy 
independence, whether it is West Virginia natural gas, Wyoming coal, 
Ohio solar, or whatever you do in Idaho.
  Mr. RISCH. Uranium.
  Mr. BROWN. OK. It means stopping Russian uranium imports into the 
United States. It means expanding our domestic enrichment capabilities. 
We need to do both. It is a matter of national security. It is a matter 
of economic security.
  There are Ohioans doing important work with companies like Centrus 
and Oklo in Piketon in Southern Ohio. In an industry like this, they 
need the support to get off the ground and be successful--not far from 
Senator Manchin's home State.
  If we do this right, it will mean good jobs in the energy industry in 
Appalachia, where union workers have powered our economy for 
generations.
  To do that, we have to pair these policies together: stopping Russian 
imports and--and--investing in the domestic enrichment industry and all 
the jobs and opportunities that come with it.
  My question is--and I will then drop my objection, of course--to 
ensure the action we take today is successful, Senator Barrasso and 
Senator Manchin, do I have your commitment to work together to pass 
real resources to strengthen our domestic supply chain?
  Mr. BARRASSO. You do.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Absolutely.
  Mr. BROWN. Thank you.
  With your leadership, we took an important step forward in the 
National Defense Authorization Act we passed last night. I thank 
Senator Risch for his work on that. We need to finish this job.
  I want to see American companies--in Ohio--enriching uranium in the 
United States, creating jobs, supporting communities like Piketon, 
Waverly, Pike County, making our energy supply more secure.
  I withdraw my objection.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I also rise to join my friend from 
Wyoming Senator Barrasso and my friend from Ohio. And I know that my 
friend from Texas has some concerns, but it is something different.
  The only thing I would say about this is, as troubled as our House 
colleagues are--435--they passed this unanimously, unanimous consent. 
They can't agree on anything. They passed this because of the need for 
what we are trying to do here.
  What we are trying to do is build initiatives I worked to include in 
the Energy Act of 1020. What we are doing is operating nuclear 
powerplants that are dependent on Russian enrichment. We are operating 
our nuclear fleet based on Russian enrichment and conversion capacity, 
which represents half of the global capacity. We let them capture the 
market.
  Russia is currently the world's only--I will repeat. They are the 
only commercial source of high-assay low-enriched uranium--or, as we 
refer to it, HALEU--which is the fuel needed for advanced reactors, 
such as the SMRs and the micros that were coming in, the new 
technology.
  It is shameful and dangerous to our country, which led the world in 
developing nuclear energy--we led the world--and once was capable of 
producing all the fuel that we could ever need, and it has become 
reliant on one of the most notorious adversaries we have ever had, 
Russia.
  Uranium production in the United States peaked in 1980. And since 
1992, the majority of uranium purchased by the U.S. nuclear powerplant 
operators was imported mostly from Russia.
  Russia has used its state-owned nuclear monopoly to help fund Putin's 
unlawful war against Ukraine that has completely upended energy supply 
chains and harmed European and American energy security.
  For years--for years now--Russia has unfairly flooded the market. We 
have seen that happen so many times with China in different products 
and Russia also with cheap uranium to undercut U.S. and other Western 
producers. Being the capitalist country that we are, we just basically 
allowed our entrepreneurial businesspersons to go buy wherever they 
needed. We cannot continue to reward Putin for bad behavior.
  The United States cut off imports of Russian oil and gas and coal in 
March of 2022. We cut off all of our needed, basically, supplies that 
we were using and supplementing with imports of Russian oil, gas, and 
coal. And it is long past time to finally cut Russian uranium out of 
the U.S. market as well.
  Senator Barrasso, myself, Senator Risch, all the Senators who come 
from the areas that are involved in this but have been producing it--
Senator Brown from Ohio, basically, has a plant that I have visited 
that has produced all of the uranium that we ever needed during the war 
efforts and has been forced out of the market. They are coming back, 
but they are going to need our help to get back into the market also.
  We have supported a two-part strategy to fix this, pairing an 
increase in domestic production with a ban on Russian fuel. To 
accomplish the first part, we included our Nuclear Fuel Security Act in 
the Defense bill that we passed last night.
  That law will create the programs that we need to reshore our 
domestic nuclear supply chains and establish a new revolving fund at 
the Department of Energy to be used for uranium procurement. I am proud 
that lawmakers in both Chambers recognized that this issue is so 
important to our security, and it has been included in the NDAA. And 
when we get back in January, Senator Barrasso and I are going to work 
together to ensure that the new DOE program is appropriately funded and 
paid for.
  So today, again, I am asking my dear friend: We have got to take the 
second step--banning Russian uranium imports--to provide a clear signal 
to our domestic market so they will basically get back into the game 
and start increasing the fuel they walked away from because of unfair 
trade practices.
  This uranium ban has had strong bipartisan support, as you know, in 
the House and over here. Then, today, we have the opportunity to send 
this commonsense legislation to the President's desk and move closer to 
realizing our energy independence from Russia by passing this ban.
  I, again, ask all of you to consider this. I ask my good friend from 
Texas, Senator Cruz, if he would consider maybe other ways that we 
might be able to help. I am committing to you that I will help you, and 
I think I know what your concerns are. I am certain it

[[Page S5985]]

doesn't have anything to do with this, but I know what it can be, and I 
know where I can help you. I am offering that assistance.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CRUZ. Madam President, reserving the right to object, I 
appreciate everything that my friend from Wyoming, my friend from 
Idaho, and my friend from West Virginia said, and I agree with what 
they said. I agree with the policy goals of this bill, and I am 
strongly committed to curtailing Russia's ability to use nuclear energy 
as a geopolitical tool.
  Indeed, I have repeatedly introduced sanctions targeting Rosatom 
activities, and I am currently working on legislation that would go 
even further. We should absolutely end our dependence on Russian 
uranium, and the United States should not be dependent on any nation 
for our energy--nuclear or otherwise.
  I know that my friend from Wyoming shares my conviction on American 
energy independence, and as the ranking member of the Energy and 
Natural Resources Committee, he understands better than most anyone how 
the zealots in this administration have shackled our domestic energy 
producers.
  And let me just say, I understand and appreciate how important this 
bill is to you, and I commit to work with you on this bill to get it 
passed into law.
  But this bill is also important to the House. That was made clear by 
just how quickly they took it up and passed it on suspension with only 
a voice vote last week--even as, at the same time, the House stripped 
out and disregarded a number of the priorities of this Chamber which 
had been included in the Senate NDAA. One provision, which I worked 
very hard on with Senator Kelly, was to streamline permitting 
requirements for new semiconductor plants, and which 120 Senators and 
House Members--a little over a sixth of the entire Congress--had signed 
a letter supporting. That was one of the casualties of their casual 
disregard.
  The House even stripped out of the bill my bill with Senator 
Cantwell--the Senate version of the Informing Consumers About Smart 
Devices Act--despite the House having already passed their version of 
the bill earlier this year by a vote of 406 to 12.
  Neither of these were partisan measures, and they are not wild policy 
changes. Instead, they are broadly bipartisan, widely supported 
priorities of Members of the Senate, and they have enormous impact. 
Unfortunately, our House colleagues--in particular, the leadership of 
the Energy and Commerce Committee--decided that they did not matter, 
and they insisted they be stripped from the bill.
  Now we have come up with an important priority that they care about--
and, to be clear, a policy with which I agree--asking for the blessing 
of the Senate.
  The consequences of their stripping that legislation from the NDAA is 
they hurt thousands of jobs across this country. They have benefited 
communist China at our expense, and they have hurt our national 
security by making us more vulnerable to China, and they undermined the 
privacy of Americans across this country.
  I hope and believe the House and Senate should work together 
cooperatively. I am eager to do so. I have extended an olive branch to 
the House for us to work cooperatively, but it is a two-way street. 
Until the House begins to take seriously the priorities of the Senate 
with overwhelming bipartisan support and until they change course on 
the Senate priorities they disregarded arbitrarily, this bill and 
potentially others from the chairman of this House committee will not 
be moving in the Senate by unanimous consent.

  I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, just briefly, I want to correct one 
thing that was said.
  Because of the 117th Congress, when we all worked together, today we 
are producing more energy than ever in the history of the United 
States. We are producing 4.6 billion barrels of oil this year, 37 
trillion cubic feet of gas, 13.5 billion cubic feet a day of LNG. In 
2016, we didn't do anything.
  So what we have done with all of the bills--the bipartisan 
infrastructure bill; the IRA bill, or the Inflation Reduction Act--is 
forced this administration to start taking seriously U.S. energy 
independence and security. They cannot just move them in one direction. 
It is a balanced approach, and it is working.
  This is the part, now, that we need to shut down. We should not be 
relying on foreign supply chains, unreliable foreign countries of 
concern. You have China, you have Russia, you have North Korea, and you 
have Iran--four of the most notorious. To depend on anything that comes 
from those four countries that we need for our building blocks is a 
sin.
  That is the only thing I am saying on the hold you have here. There 
are going to be other things that we can work together on to make sure 
that we all--I think you have them on this. I don't know if that is a 
No. 1 priority. They just didn't have any objection because they knew 
it was something that should be done. We are all for it.
  You are using it because you need something else, and we are 
committing to help you on something else. This is desperately needed 
for our country. It really is. We have to center the market because, if 
not, they won't get invested. They just won't move. If they think 
Russians can dump enriched uranium, HALEU, on us, they will continue to 
do it, and it basically stymies the market for anyone that is investing 
the amount of money that needs to be invested to get our enrichment 
program up and running. That is really what the concerns are.
  And we already have an NDAA. We would like for it--as far as the 
money, we are prepared to make sure that we have the necessary 
resources. But we can't do it unless we ban that because, if we don't 
ban it, people will, in this marketplace, buy wherever they can, the 
cheapest they possibly can. And, I guarantee, Russia needs the money 
for their war machine, and they will keep dumping and dumping on us.
  So I would hope you would reconsider, sir. That is all I can ask. But 
I am committed to helping you. But this is the wrong one, I believe, to 
use.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Booker). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.