Joe Courtney

And yet the Navy seems totally unprepared for this situation that has now impacted the military's own service members and families.

There is a sheen on this drinking water. This is taken out of somebody's kitchen, Navy family housing at Pearl Harbor.

Our military families, people are getting sick, animals are getting sick, and our military families need answers, and the island of Oahu needs answers.

I am bringing up Red Hill today because the Navy is currently experiencing a crisis of astronomical proportions in Hawaii.

I just have a couple of quick questions.

This is a bill which, in my opinion, is just sort of updating the law and modernizing the law

But we don't shut down AmeriCorps in the meantime.

Thank you for holding this hearing which I think demonstrates the seriousness with which our Committee takes the issues that we're talking about here today.

This was really a readiness issue for the force.

We realize these shipyards, particularly, but the other depots are not needed, not optional, but they are necessary to support our forces in our maritime strategy going forward.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to all the witnesses for being here today to talk about this very critical issue.

Again I've introduced a bill to actually track the Federal reserve benchmark, and allow people to refinance down.

I just want to confirm that's something that's going to be implemented by the Department of Education in conjunction with DOD.

I think it's important to remember it had strong bipartisan support and was signed into law by George W. Bush.

I agree with your earlier testimony that Secretary Cardona's decision on October 6 to untangle the public service loan program is very significant and powerful decision that will help hundreds of thousands of student loan borrowers.

What are you going to do to stop the hemorrhaging of these service partners?

Over the last month, including yesterday's Senate hearing, we heard a lot of, in my opinion, over-the-top claims that the U.S. had lost all credibility with its allies in the wake of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

This year, actually, is the first year of full official production of what I think a lot of the leaders in the Department of Defense have described as the country's number one acquisition program, which is the Columbia program.

I have asked the administration to consider some permanent basing options for the Baltics because, ultimately, U.S. flag is probably the most important thing for deterrence.

Thank you for your answer. And, with that, I yield back.

Great. Well, I mean, the good news is, I think you have a lot of support on this subcommittee for SIOP.

Rep. Courtney, you certainly hit on a very important program for the Department of the Navy and our ability to generate ready forces.

Thank you for that swift action.

I hope again you can sort of talk a little bit about, you know, the Department and hopefully you'll give some consideration to pushing out the pause for another three or 4 months.

We have got to fund readiness, because if we don't have a ready force, we don't have a force.