Rick Larsen: “On the committee, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, we like to pride ourselves on being boring. We like…”

“On the committee, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, we like to pride ourselves on being boring. We like to let folks know if they want excitement in Congress, there are other committees to attend or go to. The T&I Committee is not one of those. We like to think that we are focused on the transportation and infrastructure of the United States and on the things that we need to do to ensure its safety and building it out. I am confused by this amendment, that it exists at all, because what the amendment is doing is taking out a word, ``social,'' that the proponent is defining as something that is not in any way defined by the committee in the way he is defining it. Think about what we are talking about when we talk about the BEYOND program and what we would like to do beyond just looking at economic factors of drones. We want to look at how medical supplies can be delivered to rural areas. That is not an economic factor to look at. That is a social factor to look at, the ability to get healthcare to rural areas. The ability to assist law enforcement with things like search and rescue, that is not an economic factor. It is a social factor to ensure safer communities. Assisting wildfire responders as they fight wildfires, that is not an economic factor. That is a social issue to protect wildfire responders as well as the communities that are impacted by wildfires. I am just really confused.…”