John Garamendi

Why are you building a disaster industrial complex? Why are you not using local contractors?

It is increasingly clear that the number of natural disasters that we have had has put extraordinary stress on FEMA.

If we didn't pay Members of Congress, we wouldn't shut down in the first place.

We ought to stop treating you like an afterthought.

There is nothing about this budget that demonstrates a respect for the growing and critical nature of your missions.

We know we are not where we should be on the Polar Security Cutter program.

We do need ships. And Texas is a big exporter of natural gas.

For a couple of billion dollars we could have the heavy icebreakers.

Congressman Garamendi outlined one approach in his legislation that he is proposing, along with Senator Wicker, a way to incentivize ships to come under the U.S. flag, to be available to us in time of need.

I draw this to the attention of the committee, particularly those that are on either the Appropriations or the Armed Services Committee, that this is absolutely critical, and that we simply ought to move forward and get those three…

There was a gee whiz moment for the U.S. Navy this last 18 months, and that is, oh my God, the Arctic is opening up.

First of all, for all the Members here, this is the maritime subcommittee. We have been trying for about 6 years to get a Congressional Gold Medal for the merchant mariners of World War II, who had the highest death rate of any of the…

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a whole lot of questions here.

And I am proud to be an original cosponsor of that legislation.

Much of the discussion that the President is engaged in with tariffs misses this key point and, frankly, he would be better off dealing with it directly as Mr. Rouda's legislation does.

As you know and those who have followed my time here in Congress, make it in America has been my theme, multiple pieces of legislation over the years and more than enough talking, well, maybe not enough talking.

We need laws here in the United States to say, no, you cannot enter the American market.

It will if these simulators are paid for and available on time.

That is a game that made this chairman very, very angry.

We are going to look at that very carefully. We are going to scrub it.

I want to thank our members for raising a whole series of really critical issues.

This committee is going to spend a lot of time on the F-35.

What it is going to allow our soldiers to do is to go into virtual reality and train on a mission that they are about ready to accomplish.

The question for this nation is, is that fence more important than Tyndall Air Force Base getting back under operation and Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point?

That billion dollars was used to build a fence on the border, not for the needs of the military.