Mr. President, I am pleased to have the opportunity to give some thoughts today on what is going on in the United States and around the globe. Here in these early months of this new Congress, there clearly is broad bipartisan agreement on…

We're concerned about water conservation. We're concerned about floods. So what are we doing in this country to mitigate those?

I guess I just want to be careful today we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The Majority is clearly trying to score political points with some sort of panic around whatever wokeism is.

Why are my friends in California letting all this water melt, snow melt escape to the ocean when they're overreacting to a species issue rather than water conservation.

I think we should also be as honest about what we are actually doing here.

the greatest predictor of carbon production for the world, the number one indicator for carbon production for the world is a strong world economy.

I also agree that the Port Security Grant Program is critical for ports across the country.

Why do we have this religious experience with climate rather than using common sense?

I'm also proud to co-chair the Congressional Ports Caucus and understand how critical port infrastructure is to the Nation's economy.

The far right wants revenge, and they want to revenge on corporations, on working people, on everybody.

I'm proud to represent Long Beach and the Port of Long Beach, and Port of Long Beach and LA, of course, are the largest port complex in the United States as it relates to cargo container volume.

Every single Republican Member of this committee actually voted to slash that program, along with other grant programs as well.

There's been no back room deals, no brinkmanship, there's been no blackmail involved in this bill sent to us from our colleagues in the House.

But we also want to see responsible spending, and we know we cannot give the White House another credit card.

What we can't do is push this problem onto my grandchildren, and cripple their generation with burdensome debt and interest payments.

I'm looking for a commitment by you and by NIH that there will be a prioritization that NCI competitive cancer grants will be funded in fiscal year 2024.

There is plenty of evidence that at NIH that does occur.