we appreciate and we hope you continue to focus on that and focus on all the states and territories

these days, to build a wall, money could come from anywhere, so you have to be making an argument all the time on behalf of what you have and what you need.

we could probably find a way to get there during a hurricane, but we are still waiting for their response

I will be leaving this place next year after 30 years in Congress and 46 in public office, and if I accomplished something, it could be that I instilled in folks that territories are not states, but they are American citizens and should be…

I look forward to hearing how annual funding supports your agencies' STEM programs, how you work in coordination with your Federal partners to not duplicate STEM efforts.

the reason you alluded to a generous increase is because this Chairman and Mr. Aderholt and our leadership agree in helping NASA and NSF, especially in the STEM field

STEM education provides a pathway for many high-quality and fulfilling careers, while helping boost the U.S. innovation, economic competitiveness, and national security.

It would be extremely worthwhile for this subcommittee to follow up with a hearing to consider NASA's budget amendment to accelerate the U.S. return to the moon in 2024.

For me, it is structural, racial disparities that we need to work on.

In the past two years, it has shown that the census is vulnerable to political manipulation, when the citizenship question was added.

The delay in hiring is caused by massive backlog in background checks.

My first question is about a bill that I authored called the Census Idea Act, which would prevent arbitrary and capricious harmful questions from being added.

I am concerned about the future of banking.

I am going to suggest that the Fed and the FDIC pause their review of this merger until they can have hearings where the actual decision-makers hear directly from the public about the suggested merger.

I think it is an insult to the public and shows that the regulators don't take this hearing process seriously.

And if the Bureau can't handle the 1,500 background checks, how in the world is it going to handle 15,000?

As I understand it the delay in hiring is caused by massive backlog in background checks.

We really cannot allow our country to be in that position again, where really the accuracy of the census is questioned.