We don't need to cut this budget, we need to increase it because so many [off microphone] we can all benefit [off microphone].

The Department of Defense is complying with congressional direction to transition national security launch activity from vehicles that use Russian-made rocket engines to those which use a domestically produced engine by the end of 2022.

The biggest threat to me is uncertainty.

I think we're going to keep bipartisan support. I'm going to give all I can, I believe the Senator from New Hampshire will, too, just like Senator Mikulski and I did work together.

Certainty is important.

The original commercial crew program contract stipulated certification for crew launches by 2017, but the reality is that the anticipated certification will now be in 2019, a slip.

The administration has proposed a fiscal year 2018 budget of $19.1 billion for NASA, which is a reduction of 2.9 percent from the current year level.

But NASA for years has been on the cutting edge and has to maintain a cutting edge of science, and we all benefit from that.

What assurance can you give this subcommittee that there will be no more cost increases or delays? Can you do that?

Is NASA experiencing any pressure from the commercial crew providers to loosen contract requirements to enable flying to the Space Station sooner?

Its activities, as you probably well know, employ over 150,000 people in my State and generate over $23.4 billion direct and indirect in economic value.

Meeting these target levels is incredibly important, and Congress has met these targets now 3 years in a row.

The Port of Mobile in my State of Alabama is currently the tenth largest U.S. seaport by total volume.

We have dire needs everywhere, everybody here today has a need for infrastructure.

Because you have to follow the law like we all do, right?

There is a lot of potential in the Port of Mobile, without a doubt.

I am not above the law and you are not above the law. Nobody should be, and that is what we preach, and that is what we believe.

I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 325.