Ben Cardin

What you're doing now is that you're dredging downstream, as you said, because you've got to keep channels open.

I thought we had reached this dynamic equilibrium.

I've been there before. I've seen the flow. It's an incredible sight.

It just doesn't look very nice.

The Conowingo Dam is a merchant power production facility that generates 1.6 billion kilowatt hours of zero-carbon energy annually in the State of Maryland.

The upstream pollution is not healthy for the Bay. We know that.

So how would you characterize what happened this past weekend on the amount of rainfall that we received?

Thank you. So let me talk about dynamic equilibrium.

I want to thank our witnesses for their willingness and interest in testifying at today's hearing.

So the advantage is you trap the sediments from ever getting downstream if you have capacity upstream.

Because they don't particularly like the fish lifts?

This is a particularly glorious day. So it's nice to be able to be up here on the Susquehanna on a beautiful day.

I thought it was important to have the hearing here right at the dam site on the Susquehanna in order to provide the best setting and the most convenient setting for a public hearing as it relates to two very important goals that we have…

So you've estimated an initial cost of somewhere between a half a billion to $3 billion to get the capacity back to where it was in the mid-1990s.

The Susquehanna River is critically important to the Chesapeake Bay and to our environment.

I agree. And let me thank you for your help on the heavy truck issue in Colombia, how their regulations could undermine the exporting of heavy trucks into Colombia.

If we are going to make progress on environment, on labor, on basic human rights, good governance, et cetera, it really needs to be part of a core agreement in order for it to be taken seriously.

We have worked to address these issues in TPP in a number of ways, generally on good governance through a series of transparency measures.

We have, of course, very strong anti-corruption laws here, so it is difficult for our companies to be able to participate in countries where bribery is a standard practice.

I am going to ask you to give me an update as to how the negotiations are proceeding, because I know, when you are dealing with trade, you have a country's attention.

I think the framework of the Affordable Care Act is proven to millions of Americans.

We now know millions of people who have directly benefitted from the Affordable Care Act, from the Medicaid expansion that you talked about.

The Holocaust survivor assistance that is in this budget for the first time will provide direct help to Holocaust survivors.

That is not doing a service to the people of this country, because we should be working together to give you the budget support that you need.

If we can bring communities of democracies closer together and enhance their security, we are all better off, including Russia.