Mary Landrieu

I'm going to be on a tear this year to focus on our water transport because it's crucial.

What that means is our economy is weaker every day that a ship has to be light-loaded or stand offshore because the channel isn't deep enough to come in.

We need to be very aggressive in gathering the maritime dollars that are being paid for our ports and for our dredging.

We could have saved the size of the State of Rhode Island, which we have already lost.

I see that in your budget you propose using the $2.4 billion remaining in budget authority related to the 2011 Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) selldown to purchase 27 million barrels of oil to replenish the reserve.

This money will be shared with all the States. It is appropriate new money paid by BP--not taxpayer money--to the Gulf. Let me thank Senators Boxer, Whitehouse, and Baucus for their extraordinary help on our side and thank Senator Shelby…

One of the reasons we are not able to get a full extension is over this issue, and the other thing that is in that bill that I strongly object to is an automatic rate increase of 15 percent per year for people that may be in a flood plain.

These budget constraints are really constraining a part of the budget that at least our States rely on significantly.

What occurs to me is that the National Guard, along with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, by having basically part-time civilians could play a significant role in this.

Tell us why is it essential for the Senate to act on this?

I have great sympathy for Alaska, and I am going to work with Senator Murkowski to think about some exemptions for Alaska that I am going to try to encourage my colleagues to accept.

We might need to think about that because this budget is running into very significant barriers when it comes to the Coast Guard.

You can't put a price on a human life, and nothing is more important than keeping our communities, our families, and our economy safe.

My goal is to produce a bipartisan, fiscally responsible Homeland Security appropriations bill for 2013.

I think that makes a lot of sense.

We stand with him in supporting the disaster victims, the volunteers, and the first responders.

I commend you for your continued leadership.

Thank you, and we will reconvene in a couple of weeks on another subject.

Because our job will not have been done well.

I am not going to spend the next 5 years, 6 years, or 10 years, as long as I am here, nibbling around the margins.

We included $77 million above the request for the Coast Guard.

I am going to help you fix that, and I am going to put language in my bill to make sure that when you sell surplus property, you get to keep the proceeds to invest back into your housing.

Aren't they amazing?

Our subcommittee is interested in helping you build the Coast Guard we need for the country.

The challenge for leaders in this town is we are consumed by people whose vision only goes from year-to-year.