Mike Johnson

We are a Nation of laws, not of men.

This is not how the Endangered Species Act was intended to function. The Act can and should be modernized...

The Section 7 consultation process has cost companies millions of dollars, deprived local economies of countless jobs...

On its face, Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act seems pretty straightforward--it provides clearly defined timelines...

We have got to solve this problem, and I look forward to hearing what our panel has to say today.

I will be praying that you have God's favor and wisdom in doing your important work.

Instead of punishing New England's fishermen--and shutting down their businesses--federal officials should be acknowledging their positive role as stewards of the ocean's environmental resources.

Improving our Nation's infrastructure is an area where we can find common ground and make real improvements to the daily lives of the American people.

Just as many of the other members have here stated, my State is in desperate need of immediate action.

Louisiana, despite maximizing and capturing available Federal dollars every year, sees a transportation budget that is only about 6- to $700 million annually.

We are a poor State and I know there are many needs in your own districts, as well.

My district contains 3,403 bridges; a total of over 20,000 miles of local and interstate roadway.

I appreciate the opportunity to come before you today to consider funding priorities for the fiscal year 2018.

I appreciate you giving me the opportunity today to provide input for the fiscal year 2018 defense appropriations.

I am excited to advocate today about maintaining a strategic edge in reinforcing our national defense needs within the Defense appropriations budget.

Let's hope not catastrophic levels.

Today, I ask the committee to help fund dredging needs that will provide much-needed resources related to flooding and navigation benefit, and not forget the tremendous benefit that shallow draft waterways and ports have in bringing jobs…

I want to thank you for this opportunity to testify in front of the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee on the importance of developing and maintaining Louisiana and the Nation's water infrastructure needs.

Thank you, Chairman Simpson, and Ranking Member Kaptur, and my colleagues and distinguished members of the subcommittee.

I mean, we are all interested in increasing transparency, and the more that we can make it readily available and accessible, understandable for, you know, just taxpayers, the better, I think because we want to know, really, where all this…

I thank the general for his service to our country. I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Suozzi).

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Once we resolve it, let's get it resolved and put it to bed.

So what we have to do is we have to show political courage here, and I am very, very hopeful that this committee through these hearings is preparing to do exactly that.

Social Security is in trouble. And the longer we wait, the tougher it becomes to fix it.