John Garamendi

I want to be very, very clear where I am coming from. I think this committee is supporting that position that we are not going to buy a foreign-built ship.

I think the MSP program is exceedingly important and that the subsidy level at $5.2 million was necessary.

My personal opinion of that, that is for the second and third icebreakers and we ought not relieve the Department of Defense from funding the first icebreaker.

No way, no how are we going to allow you to go out and buy a bunch of rusty old hulks

Let's get into it, Admiral Buzby. Where are we with this? And are you really serious as a representative of the administration to toss out all the work that has been done and the design?

Moreover, the real problem with this budget is, does it represent a change in which we can look forward to the future with wholesome, full budgets, or is it just an anomaly?

Once again, it is a welcome change to be able to talk about a funding increase rather than to try to figure out what to do with less money.

So my message to the President is, from yesterday, he seemed to be really interested in stopping the importation of drugs, the illicit drugs coming into the Nation.

The Coast Guard in the recent hurricanes performed admirably, way beyond the expectations.

It would be helpful to receive a, I don't know, let's say a quarterly or at least a semiannual update on where the major programs are.

I understand that you really don't control your budget, and that the Department of Homeland Security is probably ripping your budget off to build something, maybe a wall, I don't know.

Without a doubt, for us to do our job of authorization as well as oversight we need to have a solid foundation.

I think I am going to suggest that we pursue a more informal but more often review of where we are on the major programs that we follow.

The problem begins with OMB sending the Coast Guard a minimum budget that doesn't reflect what we perceive the needs of the Coast Guard to be.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You have covered all of the issues that are before the committee and the concerns that the committee has.

Mr. Cicilline seems to have prompted some energy and excitement for Mr. Payne. It seems as though he wanted to jump in and say a few more words. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey.

I do need to move on to Mr. Cicilline here, but Mr. Payne was asking about the water systems. Just look at real dollars, 2014 dollars, where the Federal investment has gone over the last 25 years, almost 30 years. So no wonder that we are…

I will attempt to answer the gentleman's question. It doesn't make any sense. What the President proposes, instead of the normal 80/20, sometimes a 75/25 split in which the Federal Government is the major partner so that these…

I thank Mr. Price for those comments. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne).

Reclaiming my time, is the gentleman saying that the President's budget is inconsistent with the President's transportation plan? In the transportation plan he talks about new starts, new programs, and so forth, but he is eliminating those…

Somebody ought to be accountable here. We are holding the Coast Guard accountable, but the contractor also screwed up. I want to know who screwed up.

Let's piggyback on DoD and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Let's make it simple. We are making it too complicated.

Isn't that readily available from a dozen different organizations that already have electronic medical records?

The chairman was pushing the point, I think correctly, that you ought to be using the same system as the Department of Defense.

I will bet they have screwed up before and I will bet we have hired the same folks that screwed up before to do another screwup.