Rob Wittman

As you know we have aging L-class ships.

The new strategic guidance clearly states the DOD will increase focus in Asia-Pacific and rely more heavily on maritime forces in the Middle East.

It will put our Air Defense, ASW, and future BMD mission at risk.

These ships will be great ships for their specific missions; but they obviously do not have nearly the capabilities of the 7 Aegis Class cruisers.

To lose 7 cruisers early that are not near their expected end of life... does not add up.

I really believe we need 38 amphibious ships.

As Village Stability Operations and the Afghan Local Police Program expands we have seen increasing numbers of U.S. Special Operations Forces operating in remote and isolated areas.

What are the U.S. strategic objectives in Afghanistan?

We are shifting our focus and strategy to increased operations and increased presence in the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

As we move to enable the ANSF and ALP to take the lead on combat operations in Afghanistan, how are we calculating the risk that the plan could fail?

If we are looking at that in a strategy that denotes more challenges there in the future, especially with our naval capability...

I know that part of that strategy is an increased operational capability and presence in both the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific.

Wouldn't you have agreed that that would have been a better approach?

We wish we could have had it before the President pushed through an $800 billion stimulus package that many of us believed was ill advised.

I wouldn't have voted for that $800 billion stimulus package which contains almost twice what these cuts were.

I think Mr. Cooper brings up a great point on accountability, and about past actions, current investigations.

It has been an honor to work with you over the months, and we look forward as we continue along this journey.

I want to thank my co-chair, Chairman Joe Wilson, and our ranking members, Jim Cooper and Susan Davis, for their steadfast commitment.

I think we all hear concerns from time to time about the validity and the robustness of the data used to make these very difficult decisions.

You know, as I look at how these annual catch limits are set, I know there are a number of other elements there--the overfishing limit, which corresponds to maximum sustainable yields--so I am going to kind of dive into a few fishery…

What I just heard from Mr. Shelley and what I heard from the Charterboat Association was we don't think you ought to amend the Magnuson Act.

I think our position has been pretty clear on that. We have been opposed to it from the beginning because we think the agency has the flexibility to do it.

We need to pass this bill and we need to pass it urgently, as soon as possible.

Mr. Wittman's proposed bill eases requirements that will provide more access to fisheries by recreational fishermen but does little to allow commercial fishermen similar access to their fisheries.

H.R. 2304, introduced by Representative Wittman, is a good start, but it fails to help all fishermen.