Joe Courtney

I could not agree more, Mr. Barton, that safety is a huge, huge issue.

I have been a very staunch supporter of the Job Corps since I've been in the Congress the 8-1/2 years I've been here.

It is a societal problem. Drug abuse.

I appreciate you and the ranking member putting the spotlight on WIOA.

I'm hopeful that Congress will reject the President's proposed cuts to job training programs and make the right investments in our nation's workforce development system.

Together, we must ensure that WIOA fulfills its goals of improving the quality of job training programs and aligning training to real-world labor market needs.

It is unthinkable to consider cutting critical programs without giving them a chance to become established and successful in our communities.

If you're a worker trying to get a union, these bills make you wait. If you're an employer trying to destroy a union, these bills give you the fast track.

These bills work hard to delay union certification elections, to give employers more time to campaign while creating a new decertification process that can be triggered by the employer.

I worked on the Hill for 11 years, and all that time, I never saw a bill as extreme and provocative and anti-union, anti-worker as the Employee Rights Act.

The tankers, bombers, and airlift programs that fall under the projection forces side of our panel's oversight serve as the backbone of our Nation's ability to bring and sustain the power that preserves our Nation's interests around the…

In summary, we have heard again a very broad-based bipartisan chorus of voices in support of this legislation. Again, like in committee, hopefully, all of us will stand together to support this really important update to making sure that…

Just one quick question, which is kind of a nagging one that my office certainly hears a lot about, from Groton, which is the issue of security clearances.

The President actually was in my district just last week at the Coast Guard Academy and threw his support behind the recapitalization of the icebreaker fleet.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Stiller, thank you for noting in your testimony that the budget calls for sort of filling in that 2021 dip in the Virginia-class production.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And again, I want to thank the three distinguished witnesses that are here today to discuss the fiscal year 2018 budget request for the Department of the Navy and the Marine Corps.

So I think we are going after that problem, because the number of ships we have is limited.

Well, again, I think for all the reasons that you stated, the Transparency Act and Know Before You Go, I mean, it is time for us to do this and move forward and, again, hopefully defer any kind of drastic budget decisions like the ones…

I would like to, again, just sort of make a comment that a lot of the testimony has been framed in terms of the benefit to the students and to the families, but I do think Mr. Delisle made an important point that the data gaps is creating…

We cannot afford to rest on our laurels. Rather, we must continue to adapt and advance new technologies, tactics, and operational concepts.

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps team must be prepared to meet new challenges as our potential adversaries rapidly improve their tactics and technologies.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing on the future of amphibious warfare in a contested environment.

I represent southeastern Connecticut, which a few years ago we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the launch of the Nautilus.

If the follow-on frigate can expand on the lethality and survivability further, I believe it will be exactly in line with the distributed fleet concept that our Navy leaders continue to say that we need.

We cannot afford nor does it make sense to simply build highly advanced yet very expensive destroyers.