Thank you, Chairman Collins. Let me first thank you and our Ranking Member, Senator McCaskill, for holding a bipartisan hearing on this very, very important question.

I have been one of the biggest proponents of cybersecurity as a critical warfighting domain during my time in Congress.

I couldn't agree more, Mr. Secretary, and I share that concern. And the faster we can get these boats into the water, obviously the better.

As we work to manage cybersecurity at an enterprise level and evaluate the state of much-needed programs, such as OCX, it is critical that the services understand the cybersecurity requirements laid before them.

I believe we must ensure that you and your counterparts here today have the flexibility and the agility needed to acquire and utilize off-the-shelf capabilities that can quickly transition to the warfighter.

I want to thank you as well as the hardworking men and women who work under your supervision at the Department of Homeland Security and the work that they do to protect our Nation.

It is a bold proposal, and I appreciate the administration looking forward with big investments.

I think it is a dangerous proposal that moves this country in the wrong direction.

We have not made the necessary investment to keep pace with this demand.

I know you do not tolerate this. You do not accept it. The question is what we can all do to change the culture and to provide more training and more support, so these statistics improve dramatically and quickly.

Rhode Island's Route 610 connector, for example, is crumbling with patches upon patches barely holding it together.

I do not think that privatization will offer a path to safer skies.

But, unfortunately, the levels fall short of demand.

Giving away billions of dollars in Federal assets to a nonprofit corporation controlled by airlines without any congressional oversight is I believe an ill-conceived idea at best.

What this country does need is investment in our airports, bridges, roads, transit systems.

I think it should clear where both the chair and I stand on that one.

I would hate to see that vision exclude in any way services to Rhode Island.

To have a future which would avoid Rhode Island in any way, shape, or form, either through routes or through services, would be, I think, wrongheaded.