Frank Lautenberg

If we can't count on the Navy to jump in here at times, or other branches of the military to protect our fleets of marine cargo, then I think we're suffering from a delusion.

The FBI has declared that that's the most dangerous 2-mile target in the country for a terrorist attack.

I'm comforted by that.

I don't understand why such a distinguished heroic figure like General Petraeus says that the private sector ought to invest more in its own security.

We look at them with a degree of deep concern.

We cannot be dissuaded from our mission that is to protect the well-being of our families.

It formally declared that carbon dioxide is a pollutant and a threat to the public's health and welfare.

Sometimes these egregious claims that are made just challenge logic and thought.

So we have things that we have to do to catch up with our allowable activities.

I get compliments regularly for the work that I do to protect the environment and the health of children.

Now we have to dig our way out of the hole that was created by that.

We continue with this ping-pong game with one side saying listen, we have got to protect the health and well-being of our families.

I close, Madam Chairman, with congratulations to the Attorney General for filling the positions that he has with highly capable people.

It is 10 years later. The loophole still exists. Do you think it is time for Congress to try again to get this sensible legislation in place?

Doesn't it strike you as kind of an anomaly in our pursuit of law and justice, protecting our citizens, that this is kind of a foolish way to turn our back on these things?

The last question, Mr. Holder, in the last administration, the COPS program was nearly decimated with serious cuts in funding.

Doesn't it offend the sensibilities to know that guns can be bought at gun shows where your name isn't asked, no Social Security number is asked, no picture is taken, no reason for the gun purchase.

The members of this committee are acutely aware that we are struggling with the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression.

There is no more important concern that we have than what happens with the working public.

There is nothing--nothing, in my view--like making sure that someone who is trying to take your life stands a chance of losing theirs.

There is an obligation of a sovereign to take care of their ships.

We have obligations to tend to your needs, to protect your lives, to rescue you if you are taken advantage of no matter where that is.

At what point do we say it is our responsibility?

I think that letting our crews know that they are going to be protected by all of the might that the United States can bring to the situation.

And what I am trying to figure out is why the timidity to these acts of theft and brutality?