Cory Booker

In the minute I have left, obviously Senators Crapo and Inhofe come at this from a different direction than we do.

I'm really worried about the decline of the U.S. Merchant Marine in general, and the effect it is having on our preparedness, on our economy.

if we were running this like America, Inc., as opposed to whatever the mishegas is that we are calling this, the way we are running Congress, if we were the board of directors, we would invest now so we can save a lot of money later, right?

I want to begin, as I always do, with thanking her for her leadership and for holding this hearing on this critical role in maritime industry in our Nation and, frankly, to deal with our Nation's economy.

Residents of my state of New Jersey know this well. New Jersey is home to the Port of New York and New Jersey, which has moved more than 120 million tons of cargo every year in recent years and is the busiest port on the East Coast.

We have trashed that infrastructure, allowed it to decline dramatically, and we are suffering as a result of that.

Without this reaffirmation, and without a clear commitment that the government will work diligently to achieve this objective, we will continue to lack the coordinated approach to a national maritime policy our industry needs.

This hearing is timely. As folks know, Senator Fischer and I are preparing to introduce our second maritime reauthorization bill.

today the Senate approved legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration--FAA--for 18 months. I applaud the work of my colleagues, Senators Thune and Nelson, and their staff who worked tirelessly to get this important…

the more we wait, the more expensive it gets, not just because when you are trying to fix your roof, the longer you wait, the worse the damage gets, but also because the cost of capital right now is as low as it is going to be for a very…

This country's ports, vessels, and Merchant Marine forces are absolutely critical to our Nation's economic growth and military preparedness and disaster relief efforts.

So Congress's inaction to find this is putting at risk the health of our children and pregnant women in every State around the Country.

there is a very small pool for environmental justice work.

The lost economic productivity of kids that are being affected and their health is being affected is really troublesome.

I have reintroduced the same legislation that was reauthorized by Ronald Reagan.

the asthma rates are about three, four times higher. No. 1 reason why children are missing schools; the lack of productivity, the impact it has on that child's overall success is pretty dramatic, and that evidence is pretty iron clad…

I think we have a crisis in this Country in terms of the toxicity and how it affects our children.

DHS also raised our Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grants--UASI vulnerability, moving it from 11 to 7 on the risk index.

You agree that this is a new threat and that we should be making supplemental new funding, as opposed to taking away urgently needed dollars from currently existing programs?

This is a new threat and we need the supplemental appropriation to be passed.

I have lost many votes before. This is one that I am very happy to not win, if possible.

If it is critical infrastructure, we have the most dangerous, they say, couple of miles--there are chemical companies, you name it.

the best providers, in my city, who are creating transformative change, taking people from addiction to recovery and from criminality to productivity, are being denied funding.

I think that all of these people are doing admirable things to stop it, but there is something that is driving this that is different than in any other country.

we are the mass drivers of that consumption on the planet Earth.