To cut 25 percent of the budget for preparedness grants, to cut the pre-disaster mitigation funds, that is whistling through the graveyard.

It is absolutely nuts. But we are going to cut real preparedness to do this.

I am pleased that today we are jointly sending a letter to President Trump, urging him to fully utilize the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund as a part of his $1 trillion infrastructure plan.

The fact is, the population for Lake County, Illinois, has grown by 83 percent. The median household income in Lake County, Illinois, has increased by 17.7 percent.

There is a constitutional issue recently upheld by the Supreme Court.

I am here today to emphasize my support and ask for your support for the Federal Transit Administration's Capital Investment Grant Program and the New Starts, and Core Capacity Grants Program.

We have been working for a generation to connect ourselves to the economy of Chicago, which is larger than the economy of Sweden.

But all of this effort for a generation will be for naught if that capital investment grant program is not adequately funded.

If we fully fund the FAST Act we will barely tread water.

Let's spend the tax for the purpose for which it was collected, deal with the maintenance backlog in our harbors, and more efficiently move freight.

I believe there are unnecessary delays and impediments due sometimes to bureaucracy and to, you know, misguided regulations.

We are breaking faith with the American people. It seems kind of like a no-brainer.

I also caution that you don't swing to the other extreme, which is, you know, we are just going to facilitate projects, whether or not they are well thought-out.

We are living in the safest period of the U.S. civil aviation history. We can all be thankful for that.

Hopefully we can get that straightened out with the administration.

I am always concerned with voluntary compliance because there is always some low-budget person out there saying: To heck with that, I will take your stuff.

I was the Democratic author of PFCs because I use the Eugene Airport.

Do you think we should allow a State-owned enterprise in a monarchy dictatorship, do you think that is fair competition for our airlines?

I want to thank Chairman LoBiondo and Ranking Member Larsen again for this third in a series of the Aviation Subcommittee hearings focusing on FAA reauthorization and building a 21st-century aviation system for America.

I still haven't found that Malaysian flight, so I have concerns about chasing the cheapest labor around the world.

I think is the fairest way to have a user fee-based system.

It is time to get past this and get real and allow the airports to fund.

I think that is one way of doing it, as well.

I have introduced a bill to lift the cap on the passenger facility charge.

I am vitally interested in the needs of the airports, particularly their unmet needs.