A bill to provide for the approval of the Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Australia Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

This companion bill to S. 3844 ensures that the proposed nuclear cooperation agreement with Australia is approved before the existing agreement expires at the end of this calendar year.

Since the Australia 123 agreement was submitted on May 5, changes to the announced House schedule created the possibility that Congress might possibly adjourn before the agreement met the Atomic Energy Act's requirement of a review period of 90 days of continuous session.

The direct result would have been a disruption of several months of our nuclear trade and cooperation with Australia, which supplies the United States 25 percent of its uranium. But now it appears that the projected extension of the lame duck session will be sufficient to meet the 90-day requirement.

However, there are still several reasons the House should still vote to pass this bill. The most important is the opportunity to express our strong support and admiration for our close ally, Australia. For seven decades the United States and Australia have developed ever closer ties, which have been repeatedly tested in both war and peace.

Beginning in World War II and extending through Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and now Afghanistan, the United States and Australian troops have fought side by side. In fact, Mr. Speaker, Australia has been a loyal ally in every major war since World War II that the United States has fought in.

Without its bedrock support, the defense of our interests in the East and South Asia would be greatly undermined. Reliable allies are rare in this world, and close friends are even rarer.

This bill also is a recognition of Australia's exemplary record in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons worldwide. It has taken responsibility very seriously and cooperated closely with the United States on nonproliferation issues across the board, most recently by joining with us to impose new and tougher sanctions on Iran.

There is another and equally important reason the House should vote for this bill: Namely, to demonstrate the contrast between this nuclear cooperation agreement with Australia and that proposed for Russia, which is also before Congress and which also faces an expiration of the 90-day deadline.

While Australia has been a reliable ally and a partner and honest with the United States, Russia has worked to undermine our interests around the world, from Iran to Europe and Venezuela to Syria. Moscow's overt and covert assistance to Iran's nuclear program has been crucial to Tehran's progress in developing a nuclear weapons capabilities.

It has built the Bushehr nuclear facility, which is scheduled to come online in January, and the Russians have said they are ready to construct several more. Russia has repeatedly acted to protect Iran from international pressure aimed at halting its nuclear weapons program.

Its repeated threats to veto any significant U.N. Security Council effort to impose sanctions on Iran have ensured that only weak measures have been adopted, which Tehran has laughed at and ignored. Russia has also signed nuclear cooperation agreements with the rogue regimes in Burma and Venezuela and continues to market its nuclear wares anywhere in the world to anyone that has a little money to spend.

Given this record, an intelligent observer might wonder why we are even considering nuclear cooperation with a country so determined to undermine our interests, that consistently does not tell the truth. Well, the answer is that this nuclear cooperation agreement was offered to Russia first by the previous and then by the current administration as one of a series of gifts in an effort to bribe Moscow into cooperating on Iran.

The strategy obviously has not worked, and the agreement certainly cannot be sold on its merits. Moscow sees this as a way to make money, but it is difficult to identify how the United States might benefit from the agreement.

By voting for this bill, the House will reaffirm its strong support for the United States' alliance with our friends and allies, the Australians.

It will thereby demonstrate that we will support nuclear cooperation agreements only with those countries which have earned our trust, which have not aided our enemies, and which have consistently acted to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Russia meets none of these conditions, and we must not reward it for its actions that, either recklessly or deliberately, have greatly undermined the security of the American people and that of the world as a whole.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

We have no other speakers, Mr. Speaker.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6411) to provide for the approval of the Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Australia Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 6411 approves the U.S.-Australia agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation, which replaces the current U.S.-Australia agreement that expires in January.

I know everyone here agrees that Australia is a close friend and valued ally to our country. Moreover, Australia provides over 20 percent of the uranium used by U.S. domestic nuclear power reactors. While the United States does not need a framework agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation in force to purchase and receive uranium fuel supplies, Australian law does require such an agreement in order to export uranium.

If a new agreement is not passed and does not come into effect this year, it will have to be resubmitted to the next Congress. Given the statutory requirement for 90 days of continuous session to elapse, it would likely be May before the new agreement could come into effect.

If Australia is therefore forbidden by its own law to export uranium to the United States in the interim, it would stand to lose some $250 million in revenue. But, more importantly, the bill would ensure that this new agreement comes into force and that we, the United States, can continue to purchase what we require in this nuclear domestic power reaction field.

I reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.

Do you have any more speakers?

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.