Mark Souder: “Mr. Chairman, I believe that what the chairman was referring to was a general account of the things that I referred to…”

“Mr. Chairman, I believe that what the chairman was referring to was a general account of the things that I referred to which were inside the general account. I am not trying to cut funding for personnel. There is $8 million in the bill for alteration of bridges. The report language says the committee denies the request to transfer personnel devoted to maintaining safe passage of marine traffic. That means that the Coast Guard had requested to the committee that they didn't want these funds. The reason they don't want the funds is they don't have personnel that does bridges. They said this should be, according to your report language, within the Department of Transportation's Maritime Division to do bridges. I don't know what kind of fight is occurring between Transportation and Coast Guard here, but basically the Coast Guard wants the money to do their mission, not to do bridges, and this amendment tries to address this. Then also in the airborne use of force, there is a discussion about the $21.5 million, which just happens to be the amount that the lobbying firm is seeking to continue the MH-68 HITRON helicopter, which is a great helicopter, I have been in it, but it is not armed. It is outdated and they are moving to the M-65s.”