Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. One thing that this bill does is not only does it inventory this property--or it would--it also works to reduce the Coast Guard's excess property in general. It requires the Coast Guard to conduct an inventory of all of its real property and to determine which property can be divested or consolidated to save taxpayers money and to give the land back to the municipalities and cities and counties in which it resides. This is not just a Coast Guard bill. As the ranking member spoke about--and the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Shuster, it is beyond the Coast Guard in that this bill is important because it deals with maritime transportation. A healthy maritime industry is vital to our national security. Throughout our history, the Navy has relied on U.S.-flagged commercial vessels, crewed by American merchant mariners to carry troops, weapons, and supplies to the battlefield. When I deployed on my second tour to Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004 out of San Diego, I was in charge as the logistics officer of driving down all of our equipment with Humvees and our big battery cannons down to the local pier in San Diego. We then put this on a roll-on/roll-off boat. I made sure everything was the way it was supposed to be, and that is how all of our equipment got over to Iraq. This boat was driven--manned by American merchant mariners.…”