Bill Nelson

This year's FAA reauthorization bill that we will have to take up could be a good place to start if more needs to be done to prevent similar tragedies from occurring.

While we've made some progress in last year's FAA bill to double the number of the VIPR teams, the dog teams, and bolster the screening of airport workers, this tragic shooting serves as a reminder that our work to improve airport security…

As we start out, I want to take a minute to express on behalf of the Committee, our condolences to the friends and loved ones of the victims of Friday's horrific shooting at Fort Lauderdale's airport.

Flynn versus Mattis and Kelly. That's going to be an interesting tension.

The shooter is Esteban Santiago. He had a military ID. We don't know if that is an accurate ID or if it is a current ID.

Could we, the United States--do we have the ability that we could make it so tough on North Korea with a cyber attack that it would deter them from some of their strange behavior?

We are now talking about deterrence, and as one of you said in your testimony, it is not like the nuclear standoff of mutually assured destruction because we do not have a particular deterrence now.

I think it is the general assumption that you all have said that our systems can be invaded that has the American people, we as policymakers concerned, but the average American concerned that there is no privacy anymore.

Letter dated January 3, 2017 from Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen; and Chair, Coalition for Sensible Safeguards.

Letter dated January 3, 2017 from Rachel Weintraub, Legislative Director and General Counsel, Consumer Federation of America.

Letter dated January 3, 2017 from Scott Frey, Director of Federal Government Affairs, AFSCME.

Letter dated January 3, 2017 from Andrew A. Rosenberg, Ph.D., Director, Center for Science and Democracy, Union of Concerned Scientists.

Letter dated January 3, 2017 from William Samuel, Director, Government Affairs Department, AFL-CIO.

Letter dated January 3, 2017 from Elizabeth B. Thompson, President, Environmental Defense Action Fund.

Letter dated January 3, 2017 from Georges C. Benjamin, MD, Executive Director, American Public Health Association.

Letter dated January 3, 2017 from Harold P. Wimmer, National President and CEO, American Lung Association.

We've got to prepare for that. For example, Elon Musk recently predicted, in an interview with CNBC, that robots could eventually take many jobs away from folks and that they would have to depend on the government in order to have a living.

I am a firm believer that two cops on the beat are better than one.

I look forward to moving forward, as we have done on a bipartisan basis, with the Online Ticket Sales Act.

My strong hope is that the SAFE KIDS Act will be the next piece of legislation we vote out of committee, because protecting our children can't wait, and shouldn't wait.

Only stiffer enforcement and stringent penalties will make sure companies are properly and promptly notifying consumers when their data has been compromised.

I introduced and passed three amendments to the HUD appropriations legislation.

The twin vices that so often afflict massive Federal welfare programs--bureaucracy and corruption--have prevented the kind of action necessary to protect the tenants.

The slumlords at Global Ministries Foundation caused this problem, but HUD enabled it.

HUD has compromised the integrity of its standards.