Hal Rogers

I wonder if you could talk to us about why you believe the Obama administration and the Department of Commerce believe it is a good idea for the Chinese to have a say in how the Internet is administered.

The Department of Commerce has overseen that, and we have put very specific language in last year's bill and in the 2016 bill prohibiting the transfer of that responsibility out of the Department of Commerce.

We are not going to let that happen.

We cannot and will not even consider a budget request that would ask this Congress to cut NASA's funding.

I was proud to support him in that effort to protect the agencies under the jurisdiction of this subcommittee from cyber attacks by the Chinese.

So it is very disappointing and frustrating to see the increase that the administration has recommended through you to this subcommittee includes $2 billion in new mandatory spending that are simply not going to happen, and as Chairman…

In the last 5 years, in an effort to get at the spending problem that we have, we have cut discretionary spending by almost $200 billion over the last 5 years, and that is an achievement, big time.

The budget you have put before us requests $2 billion in new mandatory funding, making this budget effectively DOA.

I am disappointed that the President has chosen to put forth a budget request for your department that is filled with gimmicks in order to side skirt the very same budget caps that he signed into law last year.

So it is important that we focus on the realities that we will actually be able to handle this year in our tight budget environment, and recognize that we are simply not going to be raising taxes on the American people.

If NASA's planetary budget is augmented then the program will also carry out the first in depth exploration of Jupiter's icy moon, Europa.

The decadal survey in my mind has always been the gold standard that NASA should follow.

It is why we included language in the financial services portion of the bill that makes it clear that the agencies of the Federal government have to follow the appropriations bill and they cannot follow the budget.

NASA's image among the American people is so positive and so high that the only other function of the government that even comes close to them is the United States Marine Corps.

We all have a keen interest in protecting the integrity of the Internet.

Unfortunately, in recent years, much of the good work performed by the Corps has been overshadowed by bureaucratic hurdles and regulatory overreach.

The projects managed by the Corps, of course, have a crucial economic impact on many communities across the country.

The President chooses to ignore that problem and, frankly, only make it worse.

If we continue at this pace, soon the debt interest is going to exceed what we spend for national defense.

We owe over $19 trillion, growing uncontrollably, several trillions of it during this administration.

We have cut discretionary spending in the last 5 years by over $175 billion, and yet the debt continues to zoom.

I think the stability, the future stability, of the entire region depends upon this.

I want to note, as well, a word of thanks to you and President Obama for the quick action on Mount Sinjar that actually saved the lives of women and children.

There are 200 Members of Congress--in a bipartisan fashion, we have put our names on a resolution that is forthcoming that declares this genocide.

It must be vigilantly enforced, in combination with other sustained efforts to prevent Iran from ever developing nuclear weapons.