John Garamendi: “I will make this very brief. I know we are up against the clock here. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Shuster so very much for…”

“I will make this very brief. I know we are up against the clock here. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Shuster so very much for chairing the committee during my tenure on it and Mr. DeFazio, also, for his leadership. I want to also express my appreciation to the new chair, as well as the previous chair of the subcommittee, Mr. Hunter, with whom I was able to work over the last 3 years. Essentially, this is a good bill. It covers the things that the Coast Guard needs. It increases their funding to a level that is necessary. The title of the bill is proper. We all thank Mr. LoBiondo for his many years of service. There are a couple of things about the bill that I do want to speak to, and that is we have in the bill a backup system for the GPS that we so much rely upon now. It is finally going to get into the legislation. We also move forward with Blue Technologies and the autonomous, both air and underwater, vehicles that are going to be necessary for the Coast Guard to fully carry out its responsibilities. Beyond that there are some things in the bill that are a compromise. I want to point one out that is very important, and that is section 834 to which I continue to object. This is a bill that actually allows for an aged wooden ship to ply the waters of the Mississippi.…”