Joe Courtney

There has been much debate during the history of the littoral combat ship and the debate of its successor, a new class of frigate, and, again, we are back at it.

Thank you, Chairman Wittman.

We are not denying kids who could be the next author of Hamilton the opportunity to learn and succeed.

Thank you, Madam Chairman, and thank you for holding this hearing. It is another example of why we need to do a Higher Education Reauthorization Act.

We have 5 legislative days, not counting today, to get this done, so obviously the urgency of your message is, you know, very important.

Right. So that will be adequate for this year, but stable, continuous funding to keep that on track.

In the near term, I believe we need to take action to ensure that the MSP has the resources and support it needs.

I am deeply concerned, however, that we have not paid enough attention as a nation to the health and viability of our pool of vessels or the mariner pipeline needed to crew them.

As the Navy potentially embarks on an increased shipbuilding initiative for combatants to support the new FSA, it is just as critical that our sealift requirements are not once again sidelined.

I am concerned about some of the longer term challenges it will face without action by Congress.

I am an optimist in terms of the fact that reasonable people can come to an agreement, recognizing again sovereignty and sovereign control.

Sovereignty issues are in the fabric of our Nation's history, and we have to be really careful and mindful of it.

I am proud to represent Eastern Connecticut, which is home to two of the largest Native American casinos, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Casino.

I know the Mashantucket's support this legislation, and I want to make that clear on the record.

I think you would have total, 1000 percent support on both sides of the aisle that we need to come up with, whether it is legislative initiatives or again, the oversight function as a way of trying to make sure that these dollars are spent…

We have a budget which we submitted today, the Skinny Budget, so called, for 2018, which proposes to just completely obliterate AmeriCorps.

I do believe that we should be a part of the UNCLOS Treaty.

If you drill down in some of the testimony, you can actually find a few areas of overlap that is unexpected and helpful, and obviously there are some issues that we really do have to make some decisions on.

The issue of college affordability was talked about up and down the State, particularly as we talk about strengthening our economy.

The mental health bill, which we passed at the end of the last Congress and was signed into law by President Obama, one provision in it was to actually extend National Health Service Corps' loan forgiveness to pediatric and adolescent…

This tells me that there is a lack of information on the part of students and families on how financial aid works and the true cost of going to college.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to all the witnesses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and again congratulations on your selection as chairman of this committee, which again is a great committee.

I think we have a great team on both sides of the aisle, and obviously this could be a real sort of historic year given the topic that we are going to discuss this afternoon.

It is a bilateral, verifiable agreement that gives us some degree of predictability on what our potential adversaries look like.