Sam Farr

I read your testimony this morning, and I was very impressed.

If the ocean dies, we die. Mankind cannot survive without the ocean, not just from feeding, but just from what the ocean does with carbon and so on.

That speaks a lot for people that control the atmosphere budget.

We were asking for five million or billion, what is it, for the NOAA's--five billion for the NOAA budget and then in that, that the oceans get treated equally with the atmosphere.

My Truth in Accounting Act would require the President to consider these long-term shortfalls when he proposes his budget.

I think we put a lot of emphasis on knowing that Canada is secure, and therefore, we don't have to worry about Canada and we have to worry about Mexico.

Congress has just appropriated $7.2 billion for broadband for rural areas.

I think we have a little interoperability problem developing at the Federal level.

The big problem in every one of those fires, is communication. And yet, nothing has been done about it.

Just one observation on the sheltering.

This is a Federal fire in a Federal forest.

But, look, my communities here or out there, they are already calling me and saying, how do we get to the broadband money?

But where there is an underserved area and there has been proven emergencies that no one can respond to, whose job is it to pick up the pieces and try to fix it?

I think certainly as far as the 100 percent requirement, it needs to be thoughtfully reconsidered.

I am also a big supporter of Mr. Rogers' MITOC project. It was a smart thing to do.

Thank you. The other question I have, which is related to a big question here, is that in the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, we specified that the FEMA administrator would lead the Nation's efforts to prepare for, protect…

We have got to make sure that activities which are illegal in their country, having guns--that is illegal in Mexico; you have no fourth amendment right to commit a crime in Mexico by selling weapons to people that are taking them into…

If they are not in the queue, how do they get there? It is of keen interest to this committee.

My question to you is, will you ensure that this program remains the centerpiece for education of emerging homeland security leaders and--that can grow to meet the challenges of FEMA and the Nation that we are confronting not only here but…

Mexico and Canada are our number one trading partners and California is the sixth largest economy in the world

It certainly should have a benefit to you and to getting more communications in the underserved areas, is it not?

Are we building a fence across the northern border?

So can we get these agencies to include DHS in the discussion of broadband expansion in America?

I can't stand having to give up my bottle of water, my shaving cream, shampoo every time I go to the airport

I think you have got to charge in the room. You are a big guy, a former Army tank guy. You ought to just go in there and say, we are here.