Joe Courtney

What are we doing now, today, to deter the PLA from attempting an invasion of Taiwan?

We keep getting it pulled out from under us and putting all our eggs in the basket of some sort of future, magical third offset thing.

We are going to buy future capability even though we can't really make the math work for present capacity.

Thank you, Mr. Golden.

The subcommittee is now in session and meets this morning to hear testimony from the Department of the Navy on the fiscal year 2022 budget.

This subcommittee sort of led the way in terms of the National Security Multi-Mission Vessel construction program

We are on standby to help move that and fix that issue

We have seen from both Congressional Budget Office and CRS impressive feedback about efficiencies in savings

I think it is really--particularly when we are talking about transition type of plans, is that you have got to have more than a 1-year set of headlights.

Unfortunately, when a budget comes over without a FYDP and without a 30-year shipbuilding plan, it, frankly, makes your job a lot harder.

Gainful employment was at the top of the list when it came to the factors that reduce an individual's likelihood to commit crimes in the future.

Unfortunately, we only spend a fraction of that on workforce development programs that help people gain the skills they need to obtain good-paying long-term jobs.

According to one study our country spends 80 billion dollars a year on incarceration, and up to one trillion dollars in collateral costs to communities and to families annually.

As you know the United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world at great cost to our society.

Community eligibility is a win/win for schools and students.

There's no way you can ever say you're sorry to that 7 year old girl who now has to live with this all of her life.

Great. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I think there is strong support across the board for boosting the public yards.

This is an issue that I'm quite honestly, I worked on a bit when I was a State legislator back 25 years ago.

Again your testimony, your written testimony notice that again the House passed, the National Apprenticeship Act which is the first update to the Fitzgerald Act which passed in 1937.

This is really about preventing burnout in a key sector of our economy.

On April 4th, the House passed an OSHA bill, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Healthcare Workers and Social Workers.

I think, you know, that this program, as Mr. Wittman said at the outset, is really probably an all-star right now in terms of procurement.

Well, thank you. I mean, again, when we got the budget, I guess it was like about 10 days ago, I mean, that $800 million increase kind of jumped off the page.

In closing, I want to say a personal thank you to the members of this committee and the broader House Armed Services Committee, past and present.