Chairman Guthrie Delivers Opening Statement at Full Committee Markup of Ten Bills

Good morning and I want to thank everyone for attending today's markup. We're taking up several bills that highlight the committee's effort to support energy innovation, burdensome red tape and lower cost for hard-working Americans. We know that success for the nuclear industry from the fuels, the manufacturers and reactors to the operators and workers will be essential for long-term American technological leadership globally and for reliable and abundant energy here at home. We must strive to return to a pace of nuclear expansion that surpasses other nations and we must do so in a way that strengthens public confidence in American technology. This morning we're considering six nuclear related bills. The bill on the bipartisan reforms we started two years ago with the ADVANCE Act. With improved nuclear permitting brought the benefits of nuclear energy to Americans faster maintain our commitment to safety. The bills before us today clarify pay authority, improve transparency, eliminate unnecessary atomic energy, act requirements to ensure licensing runs more smoothly. The continued bipartisanship work on nuclear policy reflects well on this committee's ability to advance critical energy policies and we'll see that bipartisan spirit reflected in several of the amendments to the bills before us today and all of these bills disturb strong bipartisan support. We are examining legislation that will provide needed updates of the Clean Air Act. Outdated provisions in the law have created counterintuitive and burdensome policies that increase costs and negatively impact quality of life across this country. These are common sense solutions. The bills before us will cover a range of issues including ensuring that the federal government retains the authority to regulate interstate commerce on our nation's railways, preventing one state from being able to dictate policy for the rest of the nation and reauthorizing a successful grant program to help us help bus operators replace all equipment with new technology. We will also consider a bill to support the recovery of critical minerals from domestic sources by modernizing and streamlining EPA's regulations of lithium ion batteries providing greater clarity and certainty for our domestic battery recycling industry. I want to thank all of the members who have worked so hard to help bring these important bills before the committee. I thank all of our committees and the staff for working hard to bring in almost all areas not every area most areas we agree to agreement and I really appreciate that and the hard work and I thank you and I yield to the ranking member for his opening statement.