Bill Nelson

The entire strategy in Iraq is called into question, or to claim that the Iraq strategy has collapsed.

Do you have confidence in electronic monitoring?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, Dr. Sullivan, thank you for your public service. I really meant what I believe.

Just to say that we have one of the best government employees in front of us. She is here to protect the fish. That is a good thing for a lot of us.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

It is necessary in any enterprise, the enterprise we are talking about or any enterprise, to have very expert investments in cybersecurity.

We are going to do air traffic control off satellites. You could be a lot more efficient.

It is not. Does the Senator want me to stop so he can talk about the Assistant Attorney General?

I think that question is very much on point to one of the major factors that we need to address in this nation, this country.

Thank you, Chairman Thune, thank you in particular for your deep interest in freight rail issues both in South Dakota and throughout the nation.

It's absolutely vital to this country's economy.

I think common sense would say that the efficiency of big container ships is to get those containers off fast.

Thank you, Ranking Member Nelson, who I know has long been interested and involved in transportation issues.

It's important that these decisions don't discourage private investment in rail infrastructure.

I think they're going to be prepared to deal with the logistics going forward in entertaining the future cargo that's going to come.

Railroads and ports, they're quite important to this country and the demand for rail service is growing by leaps and bounds.

I will just say in closing that we had to raise cain to get the pictures 5,000 feet below.

As we are researching in the future to try to determine the health of the Gulf as a result of this four to five million barrels of oil spill, what are we going to look for other than the obvious, the food chain, the critters?

Were we not lucky that the loop current did not catch the oil and take it south and around the Florida Keys and up the southeast coast of Florida?

I will be filing some legislation tomorrow that I will announce later that would ensure that NOAA and the Coast Guard have the tools to prepare and respond for the next marine oil spill.

This matter is very personal to me. Those of us on the Gulf lived through this.

They are the responsible party. They are accountable for removing that oil.

The offshore patrol cutter is my number one recapitalization priority.

We owe a lot to this public service, and we need to modernize some of their equipment.

How do you build that unity of command when, in fact, of necessity, you are dependent upon the culpable party, in this case BP, to assist?