Maria Cantwell

Hopefully our colleagues, as we move more to a larger infrastructure discussion in the Senate, will look at some of these issues that we are talking about today.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thanks for holding this important hearing on a variety of issues as it relates to our nation's energy infrastructure.

Thank you Chairman Isakson and Ranking Member Tester for moving this bill through your committee.

So, Governor, if you didn't hire them, I would like to know who did.

Do you believe that there are still unpaid workers remaining on the Island?

As you said in the last hearing you attended, we need strong action here. The violations were outrageous.

The bill is an attempt to ensure that the U.S. Government keep its promise to the people of the Bikini Atoll and preserve the resettlement trust.

Thank you, Chair Murkowski, for holding this hearing, and thank you to our witnesses for joining us today to discuss Senate bill 2325, the Northern Marianas Island U.S. Workforce Act, and S. 2182, the Bikini Resettlement and Relocation Act.

I guarantee you, protecting the wild Pacific coast salmon is something our country believes in, and we're going to fight to make sure that it is protected.

I can't wait till Copper River salmon season.

Bristol Bay supports about 20,000 jobs in commercial and recreational fisheries and as well as restaurants.

I think that what we are seeing is, again, I am pretty sure in the Oso event there was a very dramatic rain event.

I appreciate that, but I hope someone in the Administration watches this hearing and sees that there are communities here who are asking for help and resources.

I think Mount St. Helens has shown some activity of late, and that information allows us to look from a perspective to do planning and warning to the communities in case that activity does increase.

It is not a question of whether there will be a major landslide there, but a question of when.

I guarantee you, the State of Washington is working very hard on a preparation plan, but we need help and support at all levels.

Earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, avalanches, and tsunamis are a potential impact to millions of Americans each year.

Somewhere, it seems to me, we need this protocol list of here's what emergency response should look like.

I guarantee you, with tsunamis and earthquakes and volcanoes, flooding, worrying about lahars, you name it, we pay a lot of attention to disaster issues.

When we have the K9 units that we need, the airport functions well. When we don't have the K9 units, it struggles to really reach capacity.

I definitely think that we need to take today's hearing as an opportunity to work with TSA on increasing those K9 units.

I think that number needs to go up, and up substantially.

I am so glad that you guys resisted what I thought was undue political pressure on the NOPR to try to force a bailout.

The Office of Environmental Management is currently responsible for cleaning up 16 nuclear weapon sites in 11 states, but none of these sites is larger, more complex, more expensive, or more challenging than the Hanford Site in the State…

Of all the Department of Energy's Presidential appointments, none is more important to my state than the Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management.