Sheila Jackson Lee: “I want to congratulate the gentleman for his legislation. It is very, very astute and a very important initiative, the…”

“I want to congratulate the gentleman for his legislation. It is very, very astute and a very important initiative, the Gains in Global Nuclear Detection Architecture Act. Again, I thank the chairman of the subcommittee as well for his leadership. He is a fellow Texan. We meet each other on several committees, but we have the opportunity to work together on these important issues. Let me just briefly say how important this is. This is a fill-in-the- gap initiative. And the gap can be dangerous. It can be devastating. What it ensures is that we develop and maintain documentation that provides information on how the Office's research investment aligns with gaps in the enhanced Global Nuclear Detection Architecture and with research challenges identified by the Director, and that defines in detail how the Office will address such research challenges. I have real life, if you will, examples, in the community that I come from. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the maritime border has 95,000 miles of shoreline and 361 seaports. One of those happens to be the Port of Houston. Ocean transportation accounts for 95 percent of cargo tonnage that moves in and out of the country with 8,588 commercial vessels making 82,044 port calls in 2015. In my community alone, Houston, Texas, has a 25-mile maritime line.…”