Jim Inhofe: “I have listened to these arguments. We keep going back and refuting the arguments. We have it documented. There is no…”

“I have listened to these arguments. We keep going back and refuting the arguments. We have it documented. There is no question about that. As far as the national security ramifications are concerned, I tell my good friend from Pennsylvania I have served for 20 years either on the House or the Senate Committee on Armed Services and I have watched these things very carefully. The Senator has mentioned San Diego and San Francisco, all these areas for national security purposes. I suggest to my good friend from Pennsylvania that these do not use the Corps dredges. They use private-sector dredges in these areas, in all of them you mentioned. Again, going back to the arguments, as I quoted from institutions such as the Transportation Institute and the Seafarers International Union of North America, AFL-CIO, they all say the same thing, which I could repeat as many times as we need to tonight--and I have quite a bit of time left, so I guess I could do it several times--that it would take $20 million or so to refurbish this thing, to get it so it can operate. The report that was quoted by the Senator from Pennsylvania of the American Bureau of Shipping, that was, as I understand it, only referring to the hull, that the hull has some problems and that the hull is not cracked. So again, I just repeat these arguments, as I have done before. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.”