Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Ohio, our ranking member of the subcommittee, for all of his work on this. I want to thank Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney from New York, our chairman; Chairman DeFazio and the ranking member of the full committee, Sam Graves, for all their work on this. Mr. Speaker, this is a bill that is a bipartisan bill, and I do appreciate everyone working together to make sure that we are doing the right thing. The Coast Guard, in many cases, is not held to the level of regard and respect that they deserve. Let's think about all of the things that the Coast Guard is responsible for: They are in charge of drug interdiction on our seas; they are in charge of alien interdiction on our seas; they are in charge of enforcing all U.S. laws on our waterways; securing our maritime borders; defense readiness; port and coastal security issues; search and rescue; marine safety; maintaining aids to navigation; icebreaking; marine environmental protection; oil spill prevention and response; and many other things. Mr. Speaker, I often refer to them as the Swiss Army knife of the Federal Government. They have an incredibly broad jurisdiction. These are men and women who are serving their Nation on a daily basis. I want to thank all of the leaders of this committee for the work in the committee, where we took the Coast Guard Parity Act and added it to this bill.…”