In Georgia, we have had two category-4 droughts: one in the Savannah River basin and one in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee flat and the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Tallapoosa.

It just seems to me, like in the Endangered Species Act, that when the endangerment of homo sapiens... there ought to be some judgment applied in these judgments on endangered species.

Thank you, Madam Chairman.

I was very impressed with our meeting before your confirmation, and I appreciate your taking on this responsibility.

There seems to be some gap. This type of thing doesn't go on at the major carriers.

we're going to suggest that they need their seasoned safety folks mentor some of the younger pilots

we've depended upon--and perhaps unfortunately the professionalism of the pilot to show up rested and ready for work

if you have two pilots in a plane that crashed, both of whom commuted within the same 24 hours to get to the flight

I think that's exactly the right answer, and I appreciate your candor.

I understand one of the top six recommendations of NTSB is a requirement that all turboprop aircraft be flown--hand-flown during icing conditions

We are very grateful for that, and I am very grateful to the Committee Members who helped me get the appropriations in the Appropriations Act to do that.

I will not make a statement, except unfortunately given the fact the HELP Committee is getting ready to start marking up the Health Care bill, I am going to have to leave.

Should there be some requirements on the time in the air, whether you're flying as a passenger to get to the flight that you're going to fly as a pilot or a co-pilot?

This is the ultimate taking of weapons and turning them into plow shares.

this is a budget-driven decision, which means that somebody's going to be at risk.

I think we have some serious decisions that we're going to have to make with respect to what I treat as basically recommendations coming out of DOD.

I fully believe that it is not the threat of enemy aircraft, but the threat of enemy SAMs and their proliferation that represents the true threat to our forces today.

I want to certainly make the record reflect that I am very concerned about two major areas as we move forward.