Reclaiming my time, I appreciate the gentleman from Massachusetts lending his voice to this debate in favor of it. I yield to the gentleman from Florida.

But I am not saying today, I am just talking about over the last--since the Bush Administration opened up the whole OCS for exploration...

I reclaim my time, and I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts. MR. FRANK of Massachusetts. The gentleman from Washington is turning this on its head; and standing on your head is dangerous in any circumstances; but in the water, it's…

it appears that they are wanting really to handcuff or hold the reins back on American energy independence.

I think the American people do want to have a conversation about what level of the border is secure and what we are doing.

I have seen this movement over the years of trying to turn some of our national parks into wilderness areas, and it never was intended to be that way.

It is a very elitist type of attitude, and it is just disgusting to me.

Secretary Chu wanting to increase these rates to in my opinion to redistribute the wealth.

Do not take our tax dollars and make investment decisions for us. Let us make those decisions ourselves.

I believe the private sector can better manage those lakes, better manage the power output of the hydro dams there.

Wind and solar are intermittent.

There is dramatic concern within the populace that there will be a Government overreach as we try to protect American systems on the private sector and the public sector.

I think it is very unfortunate that people do not realize how valuable this and how important that inland waterway system is to this Nation.

Well, that is something that should concern all of us. We certainly need to look into that.

But I showed up in that restaurant, and there were about 100 people there that day, and I did not get to eat lunch because just one after another they stood up and told me how important the Chickamauga Lock was to their businesses.

In my view, it is irresponsible for Congress to expect our Nation's infrastructure to keep pace with all that our modern economy requires when we do not provide the resources necessary to even properly maintain these critical assets.

I can tell you that you cannot serve on this subcommittee very long before you realize that the people of this country take all these subjects that we deal with in here very much for granted.

On rollcall No. 157 I was meeting with students from Clemson University concerning Pell Grant funding during the vote for the Lena Horne Recognition Act. I support recognizing the achievements of Ms. Horne and would have voted in favor of…

We have been warned. If the Ryan budget is maintained, in my view, we will have chosen to ignore these warnings.

Where is the outrage? about Olmsted and talking about 32 years to take something that was supposed to take 7 years.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.

if America is serious about dealing with this problem we can do so because we can do anything that we put our minds to.

Are we really serious about completing the mission, securing our border?

When President Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, the average nationwide price for a gallon of gasoline was $1.84. The 2012 March nationwide average has been $3.89 or higher, reflecting a 110 percent increase. Keep in mind that every…

I want to thank the gentleman from New York for his leadership on this issue. I just got a text message a minute ago from my wife that said my youngest son, he's 11, hit an in-the-park home run, and I wasn't there. I wasn't there because…