Of the people, by the people, for the people.

Just an obstruction of freedom to America, isn't it?

This is an interesting conversation, you know. You talk about post offices, but we don't need them.

Some people may say that this country cannot afford these investments--I say we cannot afford not to make them.

I'm going to be on a tear this year to focus on our water transport because it's crucial.

This budget is wholly insufficient, and it's not your fault, Madam Chair. It's our fault as the general Appropriations Committee, and we have to say to the President, and to our leadership, we cannot take it, the country cannot.

It's going to bankrupt us.

But right now, it's got to come from the Administration, and I've got to ask you all to be forceful and fight the fight, and we'll back you up.

And I agree with the Senator that we have to think big, but we're going to need a bigger budget to do that.

We need to ask the Administration, starting with the thinking that's already done, to think with us, and provide a vision, an idea, for what we need to do about locks and dams and what we need to do about harbors.

There's no way around it. And until we can figure out a way to put more private and public money on the table, we're not going to get there.

We also have to be sensitive to the taxpayers that are picking up this tab.

Well, Madam Chair, I'm with you 1,000 percent. I serve on the Appropriations Committee, obviously, I'm on the subcommittee, but I can honestly say, of all the committees I serve on, there is no budget that is in more crisis than this one.

This budget that we have in front of us... simply does not have enough money to maintain or invest or build the structures that we have to to build an economy that lasts.

So, Madam Chair, just think about this big picture for a minute. Of all the waterways in the country that bring in resources from the South, the East, and the West, our channels, this budget, is barely maintaining one-third of their…

I don't think we can have a net loss of wetlands.

For decades, the people of my State have been fighting a noble battle to save the most productive and environmentally significant coast and delta in the world.

We are losing 25 to 35 square miles of wetlands per year--about a football field an hour--which places millions of lives and critical national resources at alarming risk.