I thank the ranking member, Mr. McCaul, for yielding to me and for his strong support on this piece of legislation, along with the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Engel, for bringing H.R. 1632, the Southeast Asia Strategy Act, to a…

But instead, this is a political distraction. It takes us away from the important work that this committee should be doing.

Put simply, salty air and exposed planes don't mix.

As a farmer and a Member whose district is bounded by both the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, I understand the power of water both as a necessity and as a sometimes destructive force.

The Coast Guard has a $2.6 billion backlog of construction and maintenance projects.

Instead of working on disaster preparedness or any other of the countless number of infrastructure items that are clearly more important than this, like fixing roads and bridges, we are instead going to be listening to politically…

We used to hear over and over and over again when Republicans were in the majority, why aren't we doing infrastructure?

Instead, today's hearing is going to be nothing more than a political spectacle and a chance for the President's opponents to try to undermine him.

It would just seem to me that if there is any place we are going to have some economic leniency, it ought to be in the prevention of us repeating what happened in 2008.

I think there are probably nine of us on this committee who were here on the day that we were informed by Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson, and Sheila Bair, and it was one of the most awful days of my political career.

I was in here when Ben Bernanke, Christopher Cox, Sheila Bair, and Henry Paulson walked in to tell us that the financial system of this country was going down the drain by Monday.

If you steal some potato chips from 7-Eleven, you go to jail. If you steal $20 billion from the public and send people to the poor house, you go to Bermuda to play golf.

We had individuals who publicly, right in this committee, said that there was great intentionality in targeting Brown and Black individuals to victimize.

Do we have any research that tells us what online courses, and how to make those effective?

Creating greater diversity in STEM education and doing it at an early age is critical, not only for improving opportunities for women and minorities in finance, but across all workforce sectors.

I am a proud cosponsor of H.R. 1935, the Wage Equity Act.

I have always been a passionate defender of equal pay for equal work.

It goes back to the whole concept of not just diversity but inclusion and acceptance.