I'm very troubled by your statement in your testimony saying that the root cause of Somali piracy lies in the poverty that continues to plague this troubled country.

I look forward to getting the specific statistics from you, because it's my understanding that very few of these pirates have actually been brought to justice.

But how many of them have actually been prosecuted?

He seemed so committed to reopening schools for girls, and pledged personally to me that better treatment of girls and women would be among his highest priorities.

I want to follow up on Senator Mikulski's concerns about the treatment of women at a time when we're proposing to ramp up our economic assistance to Afghanistan.

Raising the Federal truck weight limit for Maine to 100,000 pounds would keep heavy trucks on the interstates, which are designed to carry more weight than the rural roads.

I would have preferred more spending be included in the Recovery Act for crumbling highway and bridge infrastructure, as well as water infrastructure and transit.

Additional funding for infrastructure is what stimulus should be about.

I am disappointed that the overall total for transportation was only $48.1 billion, and of that total, only $27.5 billion was included for our States to address their ever-growing highway and bridge needs.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was an important step forward in efforts to rehabilitate and improve our Nation's transportation infrastructure system, but there is more that can be done.

I did not support passage of the Recovery Act, but I have always supported investment in transportation because I do believe that these are the types of investments that should be included in any economic stimulus.

DHS in general has a responsibility for assisting State and local governments in their preparedness and response capabilities.

It should be prioritized.

Such extreme measures should not be required. And it raises troubling questions: How many others, just like Brendon, are still waiting for their vaccination?

I think one of the lessons here is that when we do run into these problems, we need to prioritize the distribution of supplies.

That to me is an appalling answer to someone who has a child who is at high risk and needs the vaccine.

I believe the Federal Government should have stepped in and set the priorities.

I do believe that we need a thorough evaluation of the preparedness at the State and local levels.