Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, before we talk about H.R. 5978, I would like to talk about what is not in this bill, which is probably one of the most important things that is my duty, Mr. Garamendi's duty, and the Coast Guard's duty to get done--and that is build a polar icebreaker. Let me tell you why there is no polar icebreaker in this bill: the CBO couldn't get their act together in time to score this one way or another. So, again, this body is held ransom by the Congressional Budget Office not scoring something one way or another, whether it is good to go or not. The reason it is so important that we have more polar icebreakers and that we included the language that passed the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week is this: we do not have 24/7, 365- day polar icebreaking ability for the Arctic. The Russians have over 40 polar icebreakers. That is over 40, some of which are even nuclear. China has got more than 20 now. The United States only has one that is capable of crushing heavy ice, and even that is not available 24/7, 365. The High Latitude Region Mission Analysis revealed the following Coast Guard missions--defense readiness; ice operations; marine environmental protection; and ports, waterways, and coastal security in the Arctic--were significantly impacted by the gap in this mission performance.…”