What accounts for that imbalance?

It strikes me as an example of how possibly there are costs to lack of recognizing the importance of investment and smart policy.

the ongoing failure to spend more than 2 percent of our GDP on infrastructure investment

solving this threatened impasse or crisis on the West Coast is necessary to America's near term and longer term competitiveness

My understanding is that both TIFIA and RRIF are under utilized. In fact, billions of dollars have been left on the table...

For me and for a lot of my colleagues, disease prevention was a key priority when we wrote the Affordable Care Act, and I'm very proud of the fact that health plans now do have to cover recommended vaccines without cost sharing.

Even if every single American was insured, we still need public health to make sure that we are addressing the needs of the communities.

The public health infrastructure that we have here is critical for issues like this.

Dr. Schuchat, thank you so much for being here, and I really thank you for all the work you do to protect our families and children across the country.

I'm really proud of the number of organizations in my home State where they're really truly global leaders in promoting vaccination worldwide.

Some of it's stable. I just am wondering about Senator Murray's statement--and you seemed to concur--that the Affordable Care Act may have improved immunization rates.

I do think it's important for the record that for childhood immunization, the Affordable Care Act has really, not hurt, but it has certainly not augmented that which was previously there.

It affects jobs. Tyson employs 41,000 people. USDA estimates there are a million jobs associated with agricultural exports in this country.

This is a different time. I think this is a different place probably than it was back then.

This is an issue that just really needs our focus. It is a huge drain on the economy.

A reliable and efficient supply chain is critical to our global competitiveness and to our economy, and the ports are an absolute vital link in that chain.

We just cannot continue to keep this going on and not expect that it is going to have some very, very detrimental and adverse impacts on a whole range of sectors of our economy and all the jobs that go with it.

Having an efficient transportation system is really one of the keys to our advantage, our competitive advantage in the global economy.