Tom Rice

It is a real serious crux issue for this country.

Gosh, we need to reexamine this. We are doing something very, very clearly wrong.

There needs to be a balance between, you know, regulation and cost.

I think that is a very sad commentary. Are any of those going to be flagged in the United States? Any of them?

What I want to do is change whatever that is to make us more competitive.

I would like to get our volume up.

I don't think I have ever seen a more clear example of a failure of a protectionist policy, and I really don't want to sit here and continue what we are doing and watch our maritime industry disappear.

We are the greatest Nation on Earth. And to sit here and watch our industry die makes absolutely no sense to me.

I guess, you know, the definition of 'insanity' is to keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome.

Seems like the Jones Act is--it seems like we are backing up. I mean, clearly, this is not working. What can we do? How can we make ourselves more competitive?

Obviously, we are not doing something right. Do you guys have any suggestions for how we can make our American commercial fleet more competitive in the world?

What I need is your suggestions, because I want to know where we start in reducing this red tape and getting these approvals for the Port of Miami.

Complying with that is too expensive, too time-consuming and it forces businesses overseas.

I am real concerned about American competitiveness. And I have got some graphs and figures here that show that, you know, in fact regulations have just ballooned in the last 4 years, growing by, you know, 30, 40 percent.

I think voters don't mind doing that, as she said, if they see that it will go directly to projects that benefit them.

We have had a huge tax increase at the very end of the last year to satisfy the fiscal cliff deal.

I think that infrastructure drives American competitiveness, worldwide.

The unfortunate truth is that the Federal Government's budget has grown by about 29 percent in the last 5 years.

I believe that there are quite a few benefits that we are seeing in the Senate bill.

Ultimately, I am very pragmatic about this. I want solutions that help my members, and so removing the cap would be great but I am also very cognizant of the needs of Congress to meet compromise levels.

Not only do we have to change how we are doing business as a nation because it makes it more attractive, but we have to do it more aggressively because other countries are not just being more welcoming for U.S. educated students but they…

If Congresswoman Meng had a great idea and she and I wanted to start a high-tech firm...

We want the person with the skill set that we want.

America is at a crossroads and cultivating our innovative strength to foster job creation and economic growth is necessary if we are going to compete on a worldwide stage.

We have a hard time with parents steering their children away from that kind of a career path.