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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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…

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…

Let's hope not catastrophic levels.

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.

We are excited today about the renewal of the American spirit. One big step in that renewal is the repeal of ObamaCare. The ACA is failing and the American people are suffering because of it. Premiums have skyrocketed and healthcare…

I thank all these colleagues. We were anticipating remarks from Mr. Gonzalez of Texas, Mr. Comer of Kentucky, Mr. Raskin of Maryland, and Mr. Lawson of Florida, but their schedules have suddenly taken them away this evening. Mr. Speaker, I…

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

Today a bipartisan group of 46 freshman Members of this 115th U.S. Congress, representing red and blue States from coast to coast, released a document that we have entitled the ``Commitment to Civility.'' This evening, I am grateful to be…

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.

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

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

It is up to Congress to make the tough choices based on the best, most accurate information we can find and is available.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I take this responsibility seriously, and I am committed to making sure our children and our grandchildren can count on Social Security just like seniors and individuals with disabilities do today.