Joe Courtney

And that is why our plan makes use of the KC-46 in the near term while also fixing that camera as soon as possible.

And what I can say as someone, like Chairman Courtney, who has flown in the aircraft recently, is that I think three things are true.

Good morning, everyone. This morning, the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee meets to hear testimony on the Department of the Air Force fiscal year 2022 budget request.

I was wondering, you know, can you tell us when we are going to see a new schedule?

Thank you, Chairman Courtney.

Well, it is great to see, again, one of our heritage shipyards kind of coming back to life with this initiative.

The ability to move quickly goods, equipment, and people at a moment's notice is an urgent priority of our defense operations and plans.

And we had Virginia Foxx and we had John Kline, the Republican Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, and we had Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and it was a bipartisan lovefest when that bill was signed into law.

I was around in 2014 when we had the bill-signing ceremony at the Executive Office Building when the last WIOA was authorized.

But, certainly, you know, the context of the agreement, which was that the Taliban would agree to leave--to lay off U.S. troops from February 2020...

I think that the 2,500 troop level, on the advice of the commanders we had a capability, a very lethal capability, to protect the force...

So regarding, you know, just continuing support for the Afghan military, again, you mentioned in your testimony the Afghan Security Forces Fund...

I think, again, if it requires our committee to move with some type of enabling legislation maybe ahead of NDAA, I think, frankly, you know, that's our responsibility.

This bill actually provides a healthier marketplace, not a more restricted marketplace isn't that correct?

Transparency is really what is essential for market economics, isn't that correct?

This bill does not mandate that an employer purchased a health care plan that has the government negotiated price right?

If you go back really even just a few years ago that was at 15 percent.

I think almost every other Member on this Subcommittee with all the COVID relief bills that we voted on...

Actually, just 3 weeks ago the U.S. Patent Office awarded the NIH a patent on the spike protein technology...

Congress must act. H.R. 3 is the comprehensive reform we need.

As President Biden reminded us in his address to Congress last week, we've talked about lowering the cost of prescription drugs for long enough.

That is why people across the political spectrum and across the country have made clear that they want Congress to reign in prescription drug prices.

No one, myself included obviously, wants to stop the wonderful innovation and deployment of life-saving drugs like the one I take.

This is an opportunity in the infrastructure package to do a major catch-up in terms of really neglect and deterioration in both shipyards.

I think that is an antiquated part of the law that goes back to a Supreme Court decision in the 1950s, which really needs to be updated and modernized.