Laura Richardson: “We must act now, prior to an attack to ensure that the personnel, plans, equipment, and other resources are in place to…”

I am deeply troubled, living in a port community where we bring 40 to 45 percent of the entire nation's cargo goes through my district.

The biggest eye opener for me has been the extent to which China and Russia are aggressively expanding their influence in our neighborhood.

The PRC messages its investments as peaceful, but in fact, many serve as points of future multi-domain access for the PLA and strategic naval choke points.

I believe in being frugal, but the question is really: Are these adequate resources to protect our homeland?