Duncan Hunter

OK. And how many of these were built with the Deepwater boondoggle? How many NSCs were built under the Deepwater plan?

The requirements were not set for and now they are lowering the number of LCS they are going to make in the future because they realize it was not the right ship.

But that is not your job. That is our job.

How was the money appropriated? So if you do a multiyear, so say you are buying ships over 3 years, for example. How does the appropriations process work here in the House?

If the Coast Guard decided to do a multiyear procurement for the OPCs and the rest of the FRCs, do you have the authority to do that or do you have to get approval from the Department of Homeland Security or the administration?

I did not know we were buying German stuff with our taxpayer dollars.

But again, why should the Coast Guard acquisition be treated differently than the Navy?

Thank you very much for kind of getting deep into the weeds on this stuff.

This one day, you got me.

Do you agree that multiyear procurement and block buy contracting can save money?

So Mr. O'Rourke says you could have saved $1 billion, could have saved, not can still save, but could have saved with the NSC.

As I have said before, the Coast Guard is operating tens, and in some cases, hundreds of hours short of its operational targets, which puts our Nation at risk.

Do you mind pulling that closer to you? I have artillery ears, and the rest of these guys are just old.

Say that the Navy did not want to do it. Say that the Navy was like the Coast Guard and we do not want to save billions of dollars. We just want to spend money.

One reason this is important this morning is because your National Security Cutters are almost done.

But why would the Coast Guard want to do that even then? I mean why would you have people in the Coast Guard say, 'Let us develop our brandnew system that is probably much more limited than what the Navy has anyway, but let us do it all…

We want to make the best decision possible. We want to save lots of money so we can buy other stuff, in general.

Do you think that that would save the Coast Guard money?

Do you disagree with Mr. O'Rourke that it will save you $1 billion in the NSC?

Do you disagree that you would save $100 million with the FRC?

An important discussion I would like to have today is how we ensure the end assets operate as intended and are what the taxpayers paid for.

I enjoy working with the gentleman from California as well. It is a strange situation when we actually get stuff done. It is a California thing. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith).

I thank the good doctor from Tennessee. I want to thank my Republican colleagues, Mr. Rokita especially, for bringing this important matter to a vote today. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 511, the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act. In…

You would think that all the stakeholders in Congress, and in the Executive Branch, and the regulatory branches, would realize the impact of not having enough U.S.-flag ships, U.S. mariners, to crew those ships.

There is no peace dividend in terms of not having to move stuff around anymore.