Daniel B. Maffei

What I will say is the bipartisan infrastructure bill was very important, but it was like a down payment.

I am disappointed that the President's budget includes a 35 percent cut in funding for the Port Infrastructure Development Program.

Infrastructure investments in seaports provide opportunities to bolster our economy, strengthen the supply chain, create and sustain jobs and enhance our international competitiveness.

If we really want to take full advantage of the ocean carriage in this country, we are probably going to need a lot more investment.

Small ports are lifelines to local communities and are a critical part of the supply chain that can ease congestion at larger ports.

A strong and engaged Federal Maritime Commission is vital for ensuring some stability for American businesses and consumers in a world filled with uncertainty.

It is important that the FMC is sufficiently funded so that it can properly carry out these reforms, which will greatly benefit American businesses and the American consumer.

Administrator Phillips has done an excellent job continuing to pursue systemic change to the toxic culture that has resulted in sexual violence at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and in the commercial maritime industry.

It is so important that we do get it right, because, as many of your colleagues have pointed out, there could be unintended consequences on these very exporters that we are trying to help if we don't get this right.

Make no mistake, no part of the world escapes the consequences of a system operating at the limits of its capabilities.

We need to set a credible deterrent. The only way they are really going to believe it... is there needs to be instances where they do it and it ends up not paying on them.

Achieving change in the detention and demurrage practices of ocean carriers and marine terminal operators would unquestionably bring relief to exporters.

In this Nation's great history, the life of Harriet Ross Tubman is certainly a life worth recognition by this Congress and this country. Harriet Tubman, born Araminta Ross in 1822, dedicated her life to the emancipation movement as a…

I am concerned that whether our people are over there on a combat mission, a training mission, advisory mission, they will become targets.

The issue of Bakken crude oil and railcar safety is particularly important to me and my constituents since two trains a day carrying Bakken crude oil pass through Syracuse, New York, my home district.

The only way to fully address these challenges and make sure the crisis of unaccompanied children coming over the border is taken care of is to enact bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform.

Being able to accurately monitor the integrity of U.S. borders is essential to maintaining border and national security, which is essential to our sovereignty.

Our current system and approach to immigration is clearly not working.

I agree with Mr. Broun, my friend, Mr. Broun from Georgia, that border security must be focused on keeping terrorists and weapons of mass destruction as well as illegal firearms and dangerous drugs entering the United States.

What is essential is that we strengthen our borders and enforce our laws.

Thank you, Ranking Member Jose Serrano. Mr. Chairman, I am here because, on March 14, 2013, in my upstate New York district, a school librarian named Lori Bresnahan and a 10-year- old child were attacked in a mall parking lot. The attacker…

A key component of increasing competition, access to innovation, and cost controls is the allowance of new entrants to compete for defense contracts.

I personally called for the Secretary of the VA, Eric Shinseki to step down so that the VA could move forward with new management.

Ensuring that America's sensitive technical designs and security-related research is not intentionally pilfered or inappropriately exported is extremely important to this nation's economic and national security, and that is why I am so…