Kay Bailey Hutchison

I want to ask you something, because I have been concerned, as I think many people know, because I introduced a bill in response to the administration not waiving the Jones Act immediately after the oil spill.

With the capability to do the transfers away from the ports?

The Brookings Institution estimated that a detonated weapon of mass destruction at an American port could cost $1 trillion to the national economy.

Mr. Chairman, thank you. And my time is up, but I do have another couple of questions for a second----

It has been almost 4 years since this committee passed port security legislation, which became the SAFE Port Act of 2006.

Are you talking about specific types of cargo, or the ports from which they came being a different risk assessment, or the companies that are transporting being a different risk assessment?

And do you think we effectively do that?

Do you feel that you had the sufficient number within the 3-mile limit?

I appreciate the comments of the chairman. He accommodated many of the amendments I had, particularly as it concerns community banks. That was a huge concern in the original draft of the bill. I thank the chairman for accommodating those…

I rise today to talk about our military construction program and some concerns I have about an apparent shift in strategy, what this means for our American soldiers and their families and for the growing debt and deficits we are seeing on…

I very much appreciate the opportunity to lay out the strategy I am offering to the administration. I hope we can come back to the strategy adopted by Congress over the last 10 years that would have American troops in America, would create…

I rise today to voice my strong support for GEN David Petraeus to be confirmed as our Nation's top military commander in Afghanistan. I want to say I have had a great experience with General Petraeus and also watching him from afar. When…

this is a huge move for the people of the gulf coast who have been trying to purchase flood insurance under the National Flood Insurance Program that lapsed June 1. The hardship is that, of course, we are going into hurricane season…

I hope that, frankly, the President will waive it on his own. He can do it. He should do it.

I would like to speak in morning business about the National Flood Insurance Program and talk about the importance of extending the National Flood Insurance Program as a tropical storm--that could be a hurricane--is growing in the Gulf of…

I don't think we should stop drilling in the Gulf, where we have safely drilled for 40 years.

We have a fundamental obligation to bring real accountability and fairness to a system where it has been sorely missing.

Well, Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Roshto, you have been so compelling, and I appreciate that you have come here to talk about your personal problems with the lack of conformity and understandable laws that would affect your future.

This disaster is having a profound effect upon my state, as well as Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas.

I have introduced Senate Bill 3512, the Waiver Act, cosponsored by Senators LeMieux, Cornyn, Isakson, McCain, Barrasso, Bond, and Sessions.

We just need to see some more urgency.

What I appreciated about Senator Byrd is how much he respected the Senate itself and protected the rights of the Senate against anyone who he believed overstepped the rights of the Senate and the decorum and protocol of the Senate. He was…

This is unacceptable, and clearly we need to be looking for ways to prevent this type of action in the future from happening.

I think you laid out the problem very well, and certainly, from your personal experience, it's clear that there is no intention whatsoever to make it easy to waive the Jones Act in this response.

I would respectfully suggest that maybe on another day we could have a hearing to talk about that more fully.