mr. shimkus: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank the leadership for allowing me this time to come to the floor. i'm going to do two short items and then address the weekly discussion on high level nuclear waste. and yucca mountain. first, because of the day and our focus on the sacrifice of our colleague, gabby giffords, let me update my colleagues on senator mark kirk's progress and since he was a former colleague in this chamber -- senator kirk's early prognosis is good and his doctors are pleased with his progress at this point. as the senator continues his recovery, his offices will remain open to constituents and i would just add very similar that congressman giffords' staff continued to do the best job they could to serve the constituents of her congressional district while she was unable to attend many events. staff did really pick up the ball and carry it for her as senator kirk's staff will continue to do that for the state of illinois. during mark's five terms in the house of representatives and his first i

mr. shimkus: thank you, mr. speaker. it's great to be back down on the floor, back to be in washington, d.c., to continue what i spend most of my time last year was addressing the high level of nuclear waste issues in this country. so today we go to the great state of tennessee and identify a location where there is presently high level of nuclear waste stored and compare that to the site that was picked that is in federal law right now which is the high level nuclear waste depository scheduled to occur in yucca mountain. so here we have -- first of all this is sequoyah in tennessee. there is over 1,094 m.t.u.'s of spent fuel on site. at yucca mountain, which is in the desert in nevada, there's currently no nuclear waste on site. at sequoyah, the waste is stored above the ground in pools and dry cast. if we were to put it in yucca mountain where it is supposed to go, the waste would be stored 1,000 feet underground underneath in essence a mountain. at sequoyah, the waste is 25 feet from the groundwater, from the table. a

mr. shimkus, is recognized for reremainder of the hour. -- for the remainder of the hour. mr. shimkus: thank you, mr. speaker. it is important that as soon as we get back here today we get back on focus of creating jobs in this country. not jobs that government says we can create, but sustainable jobs that are created by the private sector. private capital, assuming risks, hoping for a return, to get economic growth. there's no better opportunity to do that than with the keystone x.l. pipeline. this is what we're talking about. here's the oil in edmonton, there's a pipeline that goes down into my district, actually, and a new refinery also in the eastern, central eastern part of the state of illinois. the keystone x.l. will be this blue line which will bring more crude. why do we need another pipeline, a bigger pipeline? there's so much crude oil in canada, they don't have the ability to refine it, they don't have the ability to market it, let's get the crude to the markets. the great thing of the folks from the midwest, as you had mr. terry and mr. latta, we understand the key

mr. shimkus, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. so many questions, so little time. things for you all coming. -- thanks for your coming. >> last night the president used a great phrase that was really coined by republicans a couple years ago, which is we need and all the above energy strategy. in fact, i was sitting with my friend on the other side of the aisle and i look at him and he goes, yeah, he should have credited you for that phrase. all the above means all the above, nuclear, solar, wind, natural gas, crude oil, energy security. so we applaud him for that statement, based upon the definition. we had members, i want to continue, frame this debate. this is not a partisan debate by members of the house of representatives. in the first keystone bill pass, 47 democrats joined us in that piece of legislation but i think the vote was 279-147. this is not also a debate against business versus labor. because we had right at the same table you're at a strong group of friends from organized labor from the laborers to the operating engineers, all supporting us. why? th