Madeleine Bordallo

Well, the heart of the Magnuson-Stevens Act is to protect our fisheries.

Our fishermen are being cheated across this country. Catch that rightfully belongs to law-abiding citizens is taken by vessels from foreign countries that illegally enter our waters and fish.

I am committed, however, to finding the right balance with economic impact to our local fishermen.

I do hope that PACOM continues to prioritize our investments and realignments in the Pacific.

I especially appreciate Admiral Locklear. I appreciate your opening comments and thank you for reminding the committee about the vastness of the Pacific Ocean and the strategic importance of the U.S. territory of Guam.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My first question is for Secretary Johns. Can you comment on how the reductions in the operations and maintenance accounts will impact our rebalance of forces to the Pacific.

Naturally I am interested, since I represent the U.S. territory of Guam.

I remain steadfast that the leadership of both parties must put everything on the table to find ways to avoid sequestration.

I am, however, disappointed that we are not having a more robust discussion in Congress about how to solve sequestration.

We all agree and understand that sequestration is catastrophic for the prospects of a full economic recovery in our country.

This bill would codify the National Guard State Partnership Program.

So your answer then would be affirmative to better oversight with the program by Congress?

My colleague, Congressman Joe Wilson mentioned that he and I have co-authored a bill.

And I certainly hope that now our focus will be to the Asia-Pacific area, which we are looking at currently.

I am troubled that 800,000 of our civil service employees, who contribute greatly to the Department of Defense, may be furloughed up to 22 days.

Kim Jung-un once again this week showcased partially why we are rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific region.

I believe that these challenging times present us with an opportunity to review how we do businesses and find ways to improve our processes.

His reckless actions highlight the need for the United States to maintain a robust presence in this region of the world.

It is clear through the many hearings that we have already had on this topic that sequestration would have lasting effects on the readiness of our Armed Forces.

I would like to underscore the importance of addressing invasive species issues early, given the experience that we have had in the Territory of Guam with the brown tree snake.

The economic impact is also high. Every year, the Federal Government must spend millions and millions of dollars preventing the spread of snakes to other islands.

The invasion by these snakes has led to changes in our environment, destroying native bird, bat, and lizard populations, and leading to changes throughout the ecosystem.

Invasive species are a problem that should be addressed early, or else spend decades and millions of dollars on eradication programs.

The people of Palau are becoming very, very concerned about this.

Have the Palauans expressed concern?