Joe Courtney

I firmly believe that what this subcommittee and the rest of Congress does about national defense and military readiness will be a defining issue.

The testimony we have had just in the last 2 days from two of our major combatant commanders... has really underscored the seapower challenges.

Again, I think we learned again the harm recently when the Hague Convention denied the U.S. request to intervene on the Philippine claims in the South China Sea.

I find that kind of striking because yesterday your colleague, Admiral Harris, made precisely the same recommendation.

Myself and Congressman Don Young are going to introduce a bipartisan resolution in the House.

This is damaging people's livelihood, and I think we need to be a lot more careful in terms of how we, as a Congress, treat Federal jurisdiction and people's rights in terms of reliance on their ability to make a livelihood.

Environmental, economic, and recreational management of Long Island Sound has long been a collaborative partnership between Connecticut and New York.

We strongly urge you to include an opposing witness from Connecticut at the legislative hearing to better understand the full scope of this bill.

We believe it is imperative to underscore the major economic losses that the Connecticut fishing industry would face as a result of this misguided bill.

This is why I am so disappointed that zero Connecticut stakeholders were contacted about the EEZ Clarification Act, legislation that will directly affect their livelihoods.

The law is the law. You have to change it.

Long Island Sound is a tidal estuary, which borders on three states.

While that request was not granted, I appreciate that your subcommittee is offering me a chance to speak on behalf of Connecticut fishermen and state officials alike.

Connecticut's objections to this bill extend well beyond striped bass management which seems to be at the core of this bill.

Thank you for inquiring of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) about the effects to the state should H.R. 3070, the EEZ Clarification Act, be enacted into law.

It has real-life consequences.

Using the fund with these new authorities would generate up to a 10 percent reduction in program costs.

We expanded the fund to include authorization of incremental funding authority, economic order quantity contract authority, and advance construction authority.

In the last defense authorization bill, we actually moved forward on a series of reforms.

I think, again, we have heard a good discussion about offensive sort of game-changing innovations.

Again, when we talk about that critical work, protecting lives is also part of it.

There is no question that we live in a democracy and it is important to raise any issue here, but frankly there needs to be a balance.

11 workers lost their lives because of just incredibly shoddy oversight and regulation of the deep water drilling.

The failure of Congress to update MSHA's regulations could have prevented that horrendous tragedy.

I mean, when we acted in 2012 in the Virginia-class program to, you know, create incremental funding, I mean, that 10-for-the-price-of-9 block for a contract became possible.