Much of the testimony has been informed by the latest, peer-reviewed science and represents a consensus of the scientific community on the nature of the climate system's warming.

I want to thank Chairman Boxer for her work in keeping the focus on sound science as this debate continues.

Well, continuing this line, because I think this is really the critical part, we are trying to get it right on sharing of information.

This Subcommittee will also have to deal with the PATRIOT Act. Several provisions of the PATRIOT Act will expire this year, and Congress will need to consider extending those provisions or modifying them.

I intend for this Subcommittee to play an active role in that regard.

If there is not a red flag nationally about a problem that would warrant notifying Montgomery County, but Montgomery County has part of a scenario but not everything, how does it fill in the blanks without having greater access than I think you would normally give the local law enforcement to be able to check that information?

The choice between security and liberty is a false choice, as nothing is more likely to endanger Americans' liberty than the success of a terrorist attack at home.

I consider this to be our most important responsibility in making sure that actionable intelligence information is gathered in a way that is made accessible to those who can prevent terrorist activities in our country.

But today we start with what I think to be one of the most important functions of Government, and that is to keep our people safe.

I do not know whether the local law enforcement has enough dots to connect, and they may very well need to access the national data bank in order to get the missing dot that makes the connections.

The good news on the Chesapeake Bay is that there is broad consensus that we have got to take this to a new level.