Mazie Hirono

It is/was a very popular program which I hope will be continued by this Administration.

However, while America is growing more diverse and urban and younger generations are making up a greater share of the population, these trends are not reflected in visitors to our national parks.

Again, last year marked the third year in a row that we saw record visitation at our national parks.

As one of the Baby Boomers, I am very proud, along with Senator Angus King, of our park passes.

Let's have a civil discussion.

I urge my colleagues: let's do what's right for the millions of our constituents and their families, set this bill aside, and work together to find bipartisan agreement to strengthen the Affordable Care Act.

Let us return to the bipartisan negotiations led by Senators Alexander and Murray to stabilize the health insurance marketplace.

In the greatest, richest country in the world, compassion for our fellow men and women should not be so elusive or indeed missing.

Health care is a right, not a privilege for those who can afford it.

Health care is a right. It is a right. It is not a privilege reserved for those who can afford it.

How does something like this occur over an extended period of time?

Increases in operational tempo coupled with the limited number of ships and sailors likely lead to more deployments of longer duration.

So, I would be interested to know what you're doing with your control and operational and schedule pressures to address these concerns that have been raised in this hearing.

So, what are you planning to change that situation?

The Optimized Fleet Response Plan, the new fleet deployment and maintenance model, appears to be falling short.

If we're aware that a ship is not certified and ready to deploy, that ship should not deploy.

Our Service Chiefs, including the Chief of Naval Operations, have testified repeatedly that the Budget Control Act and sequestration are endangering the lives of our men and women in uniform.

Years of budget cuts, continuing resolutions, and sequestration have forced our military to maintain a high operational tempo with limited resources.

In the last 3 years, fatal training accidents have taken the lives of four times more servicemembers than our enemies have in combat.

The ongoing reviews directed by Secretary Spencer and Admiral Richardson must quickly get to the bottom of this and identify root causes, corrective actions, and further accountability actions.

If you become Chairman of FERC, will you commit to continuing FERC's information sharing with Hawaii?

I think what we are looking for is an open commitment to that kind of a process because apparently that has not always been thus at your Department.

I would want your commitment that in future actions you would bring to the table the stakeholders, such as the environmental people and the commercial people, before you take action.

Eighty percent, 84 percent, I am told, of wildfires are caused by human action, but in Hawaii it's 98 percent.

I would like to note that wildfire risk is very high in Hawaii.