Timothy Roemer: “I rise to commend the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown) for their…”

“I rise to commend the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown) for their bipartisan work on this bill. I also rise to express my support for the Coast Guard Authorization Act and commend the chairman, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), and the ranking minority member, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), for reporting to the full House a balanced and bipartisan measure to meet the requirements of the United States Coast Guard in providing for a wide variety of maritime activities throughout the broad scope of law enforcement, humanitarian, and emergency response duties. I also commend the committee for working in a bipartisan manner to increase funding in the bill by $300 million above the President's request to ensure that the Coast Guard can continue to operate in a complex and dangerous maritime environment characterized by rapidly changing security threats at home and also abroad. The Coast Guard's counter-drug missions are critical to achieving the national drug control strategy goals: to detect, disrupt, deter, and seize illegal drugs that kill 15,000 Americans and cost the public more than $110 billion each and every year.”