Dutch Ruppersberger: “I yield myself such time as I may consume. There are two issues that I would like to discuss that we don't talk about a…”

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. There are two issues that I would like to discuss that we don't talk about a lot, but I think it is important that we do raise the issue. I know Chairman Rogers and I and the rest of the committee do work on this issue, and that's our space program and that's also cybersecurity. We, years ago, responded to Russia's putting up Sputnik by, in 10 years, putting a man on the Moon. What we did basically is we helped create the science of rocket science. We did research and development, and we were able to put a man on the Moon. That was a great day for the United States of America when we did put a man on the Moon. Now we're in a situation where our space program needs to move forward. We have a lot of issues that we have to deal with in our space program; and the main reason for that is that, if you control the skies, you basically control the world. Space and satellites are so important to what we do, not just from an intelligence point of view, getting the information, taking the pictures, dealing with all sorts of communications. These are things that we do in space, and we have to keep moving ahead. We have to get our younger generation graduating from our colleges to continue to go into space. And the big threat there is China and Russia. China is putting billions of dollars into space. Their goal is to go to the Moon, and it is our concern that if they do that we have to be with them there.…”