Duncan Hunter

Why wouldn't you go with DoD in the first place? Why not be interchangable with DoD? Why not save all that money and time and be efficient and use DoD's product?

I appreciate the subcommittee's continuing support for maritime programs, and will be happy to respond to any questions you and the members of the subcommittee may have this morning.

The Jones Act makes that possible, period.

Thank you, Chairman Hunter and Ranking Member Garamendi for allowing me to testify along such distinguished witnesses today, and I look forward to your questions.

the Jones Act is intrinsic to that. It is the cornerstone of all of them.

We would like to know who is manning those ships and, at the same time, we are curious as to why you are allowing them at all.

It is incumbent on all of us as Americans to stay that decline and ensure that this crown jewel capability continues to be available to USTRANSCOM and the Nation.

You don't know who they are, which means the Department of Homeland Security doesn't know who they are.

So every maritime nation in the world has a Jones Act, and we are one of them.

What do you think is behind--you might even call it a deep state in our own Government with CBP and the administration. Why do you think that U.S. officials, or U.S. Government employees that work for the American people, want to get rid…

When does that fall off and we start losing that capacity?

The absurdity of trying to take away America's cabotage laws...

Chairman Hunter, Ranking Member Garamendi, and distinguished members of the subcommittee, my name is Bill Van Loo, secretary treasurer of the Marine Engineers' Beneficial Association and a third-generation marine engineer.

Well, I would submit this, that sometimes, in the name of free trade, maybe our bureaucrats think we need to be fair...

Amen. I would like to close here by yielding to the ranking member, Mr. Garamendi.

I want to thank all of you, just for all you do, all the time and effort you put in, and for doing something that is more important than just business.

it is stupid, it is absurd.

We want to be in the lead, and we want to maintain that as long as we can.

So let's break it down into a real scenario.

What is a failure of imagination here?

We are not takers. New York, New Jersey, we send a lot of money to the Federal Government.

It would be a mistake--and one that we would vigorously oppose--to weaken the application of longstanding labor protections.

the investments that we are discussing today can grow our middle class.

I am very pleased that you mentioned that we had allowed an expedited environmental process for the Hudson Tunnel Project

He went anti-American worker, anti-American made, and basically sold out to Wall Street and big corporate interests.