I am asking a question to the chair if you would agree with my observation. One reason i think statements have been made over there is they never believed we will get past a six year highway reauthorization bill over here. I am going to make it a deal so we can have the vote to take place and get on with the last and final vote so we would have that ready while the house is still in session. Whether individuals are facing themselves in the corner or that is not going to happen i dont know. Isnt it worth a try . That is my question. Let me respond to my colleague from oklahoma and thank him for his bipartisan leadership. You and senator boxer set a standard of bipartisanship when it comes to this issue. You have produced a sixyear authorization bill. Though i may not agree with the particulars thank you for that leadership on your bipartisan bases side. As far as the effort to speed up the senate so we can catch the house colleagues before they leave, i would support it completely but y
Shipbuilding plan. Are you concerned with that and what more do we need to do, what can congress do to help you overcome that ship shortfall . Senator this is an area where navy and marine corps have been discussing and again have realized together although the requirement, the military requirement is 38, the current fiscal environment is going to drive us to 34. I appreciate the assistance of congress to getting us to 34 to address those that gap between the requirement and what we can resource, were looking at augmenting our lift there with other platforms besides gray hulls. Gray hulls are absolutely the requirement thats needed for the high end threat but there may be applications and opportunities to lift marines using other platforms. Thank you and again i want to tell you, i look forward to you, your confirmation. I wholeheartedly support it. I would ask some questions about concerns in the arctic, but i have a feeling that my colleague here is going to do a better job of that t
Like . What i dont want people to believe is if we produce all of the oil the countries around the world now benefiting from it will produce less of it. The truth is every day hundreds of thousands of day people join the middle class they buy cars and use airplanes. It has a benefit to the United States. To have Domestic Energy resources at our disposal, it lowers the cost of doing business in america which will strengthen our economy and allow us to have a manufacturing renaissance but there will be oil and some will be siphoned and used by terrorist groups. Isis themselves sell oil in the Global Market because they have seized refinery that assad has refused to destroy because he hopes to seize them and capture them again. Geopolitically it will allow us to help break the strangle hold that putin has on europe. Europe today relies on natural gas that they get from russia and if the russians can threaten to cut that off, it makes them vulnerable to pressure from putin and the russian
League stronger, and it might have served to educate American Public opinion. If by the time the 30s hit, would you have had the same isolationist sentiment . I mean, there was a lot of sentiment in europe for peace. There was this huge peace ballot in britain in the 1930s, where i think half the Adult Population voted in favor of peace. But wanting peace doesnt necessarily translate into isolationist. It might be that failing to join the league formed isolationism in a way that didnt happen in europe. You can want peace but still recognize that you have to be engaged in the world. I doesnt know. And you can argue, and i think historians are now arguing that even in the 1930s, the United States was not as isolationist as we might think. If you look at what the United States is doing, its still involved a lot. And its particularly involved on its own doorstep. The Good Neighbor policies in the 1930s, and the United States is still very concerned about whats going on in the pacific. Ther
Before i begin, lets call the meeting to order. Before we begin to take just a moment to say that our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been impacted over the past few days by hurricane irma. Of course, we continue to keep those suffering from the effects of Hurricane Harvey in our thoughts and prayers as well. These have truly been horrific events, and i hope and pray for the safety of everyone involved. I join with my colleagues in the commitment to doing all we can to assist our citizens who are in need at this extremely difficult time. We will see what we can do to help alleviate some of the pain. Now, the hearing were having today will come to order. 20 years ago senator ted kennedy and i came together to create the Childrens Health Insurance Program, or chip, in order to provide Health Corner for Vulnerable Children and family who were too poor to afford private coverage but still didnt qualify for medicaid. 20 years ago we were at something of a crossroads. The year