I would like to thank the Chairman and Ranking Member for holding today's hearing.

I would like to review for the Senate the status of appropriations for fiscal year 2018. The Appropriations Committee has marked up 8 of the 12 regular appropriations bills for this fiscal year. The committee has also processed two…

I ask unanimous consent that all time be considered yielded back. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is so ordered. The question is on agreeing to the conference report. The conference report was agreed to…

I don't want to be put in that position. I don't think our Nation wants to find ourselves in that vulnerable situation.

But we don't have plans to do so, do we?

I think I'm asking, Mr. Chairman, about whether we have any plans to build beyond the three heavy icebreakers that you've talked about.

We could build those three mediums in the United States, couldn't we?

I ask unanimous consent that the votes following the first vote in this series be 10 minutes in length. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is so ordered. The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to…

We need to build our first heavy first.

I thank Chairman Thornberry for his continued leadership in rebuilding and reforming the Department of Defense. Today I rise in strong support of H.R. 2810, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018. As a 32-year veteran…

I have every confidence that the same will be true for cyber threat information sharing.

I hope there is some way we can do the balancing act that Mr. Whitehouse talked about.

When we weigh the pluses and minuses of any of these things, we need to weigh the cost of the loss of jobs against the benefit.

Electricity can kill you. There is no question about it, but we take risks in our society.

Reducing the speed limit to 30 miles an hour nationwide would save lives, no question about it, but we have taken the position, as a society, that would just be too harmful to the economy.

Mr. Smith, in your written testimony, one of your suggestions is a public-private partnership to begin a dialogue on replacing Social Security numbers as methods of verification.

I appreciate the Chairman's prior cooperation on this issue and hope H.R. 1486 will be considered at the next scheduled markup to expedite consideration of this important legislation in the Senate.

Our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are counting on us to ensure the Federal Government provides desperately needed emergency relief to their devastated communities.