On the recordOctober 9, 2015
To the gentleman from Michigan's point, this is the process. I chair the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee. I am also the vice chairman of the Seapower Subcommittee in the Armed Services Committee. Mr. Forbes is the chairman of the subcommittee that handles this stuff. This went through the process. This is the process. This is how it is supposed to work. There are only--I will say again--79 U.S.-flagged commercial vessels on the ocean today. That is 79 out of about 50,000; 60 of those are used in times of war. It would cost us billions of dollars to create a fleet that sits there mothballing until we go to war and then we get to use it. This is how the system works. This is the process, and this is how we keep national security strong. Republicans and Democrats realize this is the process. It is the right way to do it, and it shores up the Maritime Security Program for a decade. That is 10 years that we don't have to worry about this, and it is paid for. The gentleman from Michigan would have a point if this were not paid for. It is totally paid for. This is the right vehicle for it, and I would urge all my colleagues to vote against the gentleman's amendment and support maritime security and national security.
