Hal Rogers

I am very, very pleased to see your Subcommittee conducting this very important hearing and timely hearing and initiation of the Vision Center of Excellence.

It is imperative that the Department of Defense and VA work together quickly to firmly establish this center and valuable Eye Trauma Registry to assist our young men and women in uniform facing vision challenges.

If you do not get the monies in the 2010 budget what impact would that have on your ability to negotiate a reasonable fixed price contract for numbers five through eight?

I have been saying that for 10 years now, and I get the same answers which I can't fathom and don't understand.

Well, I have a slogan that I use frequently and that is, plan your work and work your plan.

I am talking about 16 lanes of traffic going south, 2 miles long backed up, and you are checking every vehicle?

Today, new and increasingly complex challenges such as sophisticated smuggling vessels, counterterrorism operations, expanding needs in the polar regions and modern piracy are once again putting the Coast Guard to the test.

If we had a way to know that it had been opened and tampered with by a truck driver who had been bought off by the cartel, would that not be a major advance?

Mr. Rogers. Mr. Chairman, we can't get to the bottom of this if we don't have the relevant parties here.

Opening Statement of Ranking Member Harold Rogers

We started working on this when we first started this Subcommittee--even before that--and we have been on it now for, I don't know, 7, 8 or 9 years or more.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why we don't get with it.

They are great partners, and we have had some considerable successes.

As I read through the review of the inauguration, I am struck by four key facts...

I am thrilled about that.

Well, I will tell you what. Three years ago we created your office because States weren't applying for the grants and getting the money out there.

It would revolutionize the way that we secure containers coming to us from all over the world.

Well, I have been to San Ysidro, many of us have, and other ports.

I don't sense an urgency on the part of the Department in the slightest to get this done.

From the days of the Revenue Cutter Service to the Higgins boats at Normandy, riverboats in Vietnam, patrol boats in the Persian Gulf, the Coast Guard has consistently proven to be a truly unique instrument of national security.

This is de facto amnesty, de facto amnesty.

I would suspect he knows more about this than anybody else having been in charge over there.

It would be tremendous; would it not?

It is deja vu all over again, because just last week at our rail and transit security hearing, we were talking about an enormous amount of grant money languishing in the coffer and not fulfilling the security needs of our Nation.

And they had better come well armed.