Jack Reed

The state of good repair of a railroad, Mr. Gardner, is that a safety concern for Amtrak operations?

You made that limited amount of funding available yesterday. You decided that PTC was important, but not important enough to give more than $250 million to it.

If PTC is the critical issue and if safety is the most important issue, why did you not go ahead and make as much funding available as you thought could be absorbed?

You could have made all of the appropriated funding available for PTC, if you wanted to.

But then yesterday, we were a bit disappointed when we found that DOT decided to change course and make available only the $250 million for PTC implementation.

Thank you, Chairman Collins, not only for holding this important hearing, but also for your extraordinary leadership, generosity, and kindness.

Can you give us some examples about how critical this funding is to your operations?

We all are pleased that the unemployment rate is 3.9 percent, but behind that number is a labor participation rate that is falling.

Can you assure us that none of this data will be, can legally be used by law enforcement agencies including in deportation hearings?

He is enthusiastic about this joint effort, not a singular effort, but a joint effort.

We very much would like to see the plan promulgated pursuant to the Omnibus appropriations bill and then work with you, and the Department of the Navy, and the Coast Guard on getting it to fruition.

We are awfully proud to be the homeport of the NOAA Ship the Henry B. Bigelow in Newport.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And also let me thank you and the Vice Chairman, Senator Durbin, for your support of $225 million to expand funding for the submarine industrial base supply chain.

Just a final point. It is my understanding that in 26 States, the number one occupation is driving a vehicle of some kind.

This phenomenon, you know, it is not something that 10 years from now we will deal with it.

We've got so many of those cases out there, and we have to do a lot more.

There's not only a homelessness crisis; there is also an affordability crisis throughout the country for housing.

If you cut expenditures and revenue simultaneously, you might not solve the problem.

HUD's Office of Disaster Emergency Management has never been fully operationalized.

The other point is that these disasters are occurring much more frequently.

I urge you with all deliberate speed to get those allocations published.

It has been a long time since the storms broke, particularly for those people who have been put out of their homes literally.

I applaud you for doing that.

Those cuts don't appear to be arbitrary. They pose a real threat to already vulnerable populations.

The budget also proposes to eliminate public housing capital grants and to starve public housing agencies' operating budgets.