[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12372]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



        PRIVATIZATION OF ENRICHMENT INDUSTRY MISTAKE BY CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Vitter). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, in the early 1950s, this Nation 
constructed two large uranium enrichment facilities, one in Paducah, 
Kentucky, and one in my district near Portsmouth, Ohio. In the early 
days, those facilities were used to create the materials that enabled 
us to create a nuclear arsenal; and I believe, as a result, we were 
able to win the Cold War. In more recent years, those facilities have 
enriched uranium so that we can create fuel for our nuclear power 
plants. Nuclear power provides more than 20 percent of all of the 
electricity generated in this country, and most of that fuel comes from 
the Paducah and the Portsmouth facilities.
  A couple of years ago, this Congress unwisely, I believe, decided to 
privatize the enrichment industry. The CEO of the public corporation 
was a gentleman by the name of Nick Timbers. He had come to that 
position from Wall Street; and in that position, his salary was in the 
vicinity of $325,000 and, I believe his last year as a government 
employee he received about $25,000 roughly in bonus pay, for a total 
compensation package of roughly $350,000. While a government 
corporation employee, he received a waiver letter from the chairman of 
the public board, which allowed him to be engaged in certain decision-
making activities. Among those was to decide whether or not this 
industry would be privatized, the manner in which it would be 
privatized, and to assist in the selection of the board members for the 
new privatized corporation.

                              {time}  2350

  I raised the issue at the time with the Department of the Treasury 
and with the administration that this presented an amazing conflict of 
interest. This was a man who was working for the government who was 
being given the privilege of engaging in decision-making where the 
result could be his personal enrichment. At the time when I raised 
those issues, they were discounted and ignored.
  What has happened is this, and the American people need to know it. 
Once that facility or that industry was privatized, Mr. Nick Timbers 
received a salary of roughly $600,000 a year. He received a bonus of 
approximately $500,000 a year. He received stock options which brought 
his total compensation package to something in the vicinity of $2.5 
million.
  That seems so wrong to me, that someone could be given the privilege 
of making these decisions, and then could make decisions which resulted 
in his personal enrichment.
  What has happened as a result of the privatization under Mr. Nick 
Timbers' stewardship? The stock initially sold for around $14.50 a 
share, and it is somewhere in the vicinity of $4 a share today, so 
investors have lost multiple millions of dollars.
  But the saddest outcome of Mr. Timbers' stewardship over this 
industry is the fact that last week the board, with his encouragement, 
made an announcement that the facility in my district, employing 
somewhere between 1,800 and 2,000 employees, will be closed within 1 
year. This is a major problem for the families who depend upon that 
industry for employment in southern Ohio, but it is a big problem for 
the United States of America.
  We know what happens, we experience today what happens when this 
Nation is overly dependent upon foreign sources for oil. We can go to 
the pump and see that we are paying $2 or $2.10 or $2.20 for a gallon 
of gasoline, and that is because, in large part, we are too dependent 
on foreign oil.
  Can Members imagine if this enrichment industry goes the way it is 
currently going and does not survive under Mr. Timbers' stewardship, 
what this country would face if 20 percent of our Nation's electricity 
was dependent on foreign sources for nuclear fuel?
  It is for this reason, Mr. Speaker, that I am preparing and will 
introduce next week legislation to renationalize this industry. I hope 
this Congress supports me in that effort.

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