This hearing is an important opportunity for us as appropriators to examine the emerging technologies in the transportation sector.

Finally, the Trump administration to-date has shown a blatant disregard for addressing possible conflicts of interest, starting with, but limited to, the man at the top.

The GAO has noted that across-the-board hiring freezes are almost always counterproductive.

I want to thank our colleague and friend for being here and for taking note of the attention this committee paid in the current cycle to New Starts...

Compounding the problem is the recently announced Federal hiring freeze imposed by the Trump administration, which, I believe, could threaten core government functions if it is left in place.

I am also concerned with the Trump administration's painfully slow pace when it comes to the appointments of deputy and assistant secretaries and other high-ranking officials.

Is that the sort of thing you might want to bring back? I mean, what are we strengthening in this?

Let me reiterate we are happy to have you as part of the Congress. I welcome you and thank you for your testimony today.

I just do not get it. I certainly get the idea of partnership and seed money.

We have to do our best, as always, on behalf of our institution and our power of the purse and the kind of priorities, a lot of which we are going to hear about today.

We need to invest nearly $4.5 trillion just to bring our infrastructure from poor to good condition.

We are convinced that fights waged within the confines of parliament are often fights taken off the street.

Your statement was brief but puzzling. You seem to imply that the appointment of Mr. Fayyad would be to the detriment of Israel.

Now, why on earth would we decrease overall assistance to Sri Lanka by 99 percent?

One of the most alarming aspects of that budget was the proposed cuts, deep cuts for the State Department and USAID funding.

Investing in transportation infrastructure keeps us safe and improves our economy, it creates jobs.

We really have come together, as we must come together, as an institution and as a country, I believe, in face of this.

I do not accept that the HUD budget before us is a necessary product of fiscal responsibility.