I appreciate, Admiral Moran, your talking about the manual backup oxygen system, but I think we all would be concerned by the fact that you are asking a potentially incapacitated pilot to sort of help himself out of this.

I would like to focus my concerns today on one particular topic highlighted in today's testimony and the hearing materials provided to members.

Today's hearing on naval strike fighters is an example of the kind of oversight Congress must do to make sure that happens.

We here in Congress have no greater responsibility than making sure that the men and women we send into harm's way are provided with the best and safest equipment available.

I think we would all like to someday talk about something other than war in Afghanistan.

It is a most remarkable country. I know as I have been there and flown over it...

It was really a reminder... what a shared sacrifice it is...

Private investment cannot take the place of the Federal responsibility.

The parks do not belong to one state or to one section. . . . The Yosemite, the Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon are national properties in which every citizen has a vested interest; they belong as much to the man and woman of Massachusetts…

Thank you, Mr. Chairman; and thank you all for being here. I think, from all of your testimonies, especially Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Nau--and I think Director Jarvis knows this well--that the impact of our national parks is really clear.

It is a missed opportunity to not maximize for private investment.