Dan Coats

If the Senator will yield on that, I don't want to interrupt the tribute to Senator Mikulski, and I know the Senator has some business he has arranged. I will give mine another time. You don't have to include me in the queue. I don't want…

But in talking about effectiveness, I am sure you are deluged with new ideas, new technology, and new equipment.

To your point, Senator Coats, you are right. Budgets are not growing. They are shrinking.

There is this ying and yang that goes back and forth. We all want to balance security with convenience.

Madam Chairman, you have suggested we do a rolling coverage so we can keep the subcommittee going.

But we have to remember that 9/11 was a game-changer and that a lot of important adjustments needed to be made.

I'd urge you to do so. I think there's bipartisan interest in trying to adjust that, but we don't always succeed in reaching our goals here.

I want you to know I'm more than willing to work with you to help achieve the goals.

First, with recent announcement about looking more toward the Western Pacific in terms of locating some facilities.

For me, national security and taking care of our veterans rises to a higher level than a lot of programs.

We owe our members of the service the very best that we can provide them.

I urge my colleagues to take a look at getting fairness in the distribution of funds. A majority of States are not treated fairly. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to amendment No. 1517.

this amendment is very simple. It is a matter of equity and fairness. The reality is that a majority of States, such as Indiana, my State, and many others do not receive their fair share of the distribution of highway funds. This bill…

I now call up my amendment No. 1517, which is at the desk. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report. The legislative clerk read as follows: The Senator from Indiana [Mr. Coats] for himself and Mr. Lugar, proposes an amendment numbered…

I ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and call up amendment No. 1779 on behalf of Senator Alexander, and amendments Nos. 1589 and 1756 on behalf of Senator DeMint, en bloc. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it…

this amendment No. 1517 is of major significance to Indiana, as well as to a majority of the States across this country. Most people are familiar with the fact that when they pull up to the pump, they are not only paying for the cost of…

The first responders' response and the mechanisms that kicked into gear right after the storm swept through showed that we made very significant progress in dealing with these types of emergencies.

I think what I heard you say is, is that the expenditures to date, the $35 billion distributed across the country regardless of the size of community and so forth, that you are saying that base capabilities are essentially funded to this…

And I would urge you to keep doing that.

It is clear that post 9/11, the Coast Guard is now playing a role in the defense of our homeland security

We need to triage that. We just simply don't have the money, and we need to go to the core competitive process.

And I think we need to do that, and I commend you for doing so.

The President's budget does not pass that test. I will work with my colleagues to identify resources to restore those cuts.

I would just like to follow up on that because this is obviously a significant part of the budget, and it is probably the most politically directed part of the budget that we have to deal with.

You defined it and others defined it in the security business as one of the most major threats that the Nation faces.