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“This development will resolve once and for all the home port for the U.S. Coast Guard Band while allowing it to move forward with its goal of increasing the band’s national visibility to better promote the Coast Guard’s service to our country,” said Courtney. “This announcement is also good news for band members and their families who are longtime residents of southeastern Connecticut and would have been faced with the difficult choice of uprooting or retiring from the Coast Guard altogether. I want to thank Admiral Zukunft and his staff for their thoughtful deliberations, and for regularly making themselves available throughout this process. I was able to meet personally with the Admiral on several occasions to discuss why I believe it is so important for the band to remain here in eastern Connecticut near the Coast Guard Academy. I am very pleased that the band will continue to call our region home for generations to come.”

“As representatives from the region, we understand firsthand the importance of preserving and protecting the environment in and around the Sound for future generations to enjoy,” wrote the members. “The environmental soundness of Long Island Sound dredging is a clear focus of the ELDS. The proposed rule is consistent with the federally-approved Coastal Zone Management Plans for New York, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Furthermore, it should be noted that without access to the ELDS, it is expected that transporting dredged materials to other sites, like the Rhode Island Disposal Site, will increase carbon emissions from ships and risk of dredged material spills as transport distance is extended. Our states have been responsibly dredging using open-water placement for 35 years and we believe that swift adoption of the ELDS, along with an increased effort to find sustainable on-land solutions for suitable dredged materials, will provide the Long Island Sound region with a balanced approach for future waterway maintenance projects."

"“The Connecticut delegation did just send a letter to Director Saldaña about the fact that this is something she does not need Congress to act on – and frankly the fact that anybody who manages an agency or a department wasn’t aware of that kind of caseload disparity just screams out dysfunction when you look at those numbers,” said Courtney. “Frankly, I will just tell both of you that the testimony that you delivered here today, in the wake of the I.G.’s report, in my district where we saw the horrific consequences of a system that clearly didn’t do its job – it’s almost offensive to listen to it because it’s so divorced from the reality of what the IG found, and those consequences are being felt by this family to this day."

"I appreciate the work the Navy is doing to harness the capacity in the submarine industrial base to build additional attacks submarines. Thanks to the in-depth look that the Navy has taken at the industrial base as it prepares to meet the challenge of building attack submarines in addition to the new Ohio Replacement Submarine, we know that there is capacity to add a second submarine in 2021. The addition of this boat alone reduces the attack submarine shortfall by nearly 30 percent, as measured against current requirements. Our subcommittee made clear its firm support of this plan in our mark of the 2017 defense authorization, and we are eager to see this plan put into action."

“With the cost of a college education skyrocketing, Americans across the country are demanding action to lower the crushing costs of higher education and relieve the burden of student debt,” said the members. “The challenges faced by our constituents are staggering – student loans account for $1.3 trillion in consumer debt, the highest amount of consumer debt outside of a mortgage, and the average student borrower carries nearly $30,000 in education debt. This is not just a drag on students, graduates, and their families; it’s a drag on our entire economy. When a potential borrower is burdened by student debt, it makes it that much more difficult to buy a home, start a family, or change a career.

“This ruling makes clear what the United States and its allies in the region already know – that China’s excessive maritime claims and reclamation activity in the South China Sea are not only inconsistent with international law but also highly disruptive to stability of the region,” Courtney said. “In reclaiming more than 3,000 acres of land from the seafloor, militarizing the majority of it, and attempting to partner with landlocked states to write a false narrative justifying their actions, it ought to be clear that China’s actions are jeopardizing the international rules-based order. In light of this binding decision today, China and other stakeholders in the region must work cooperatively and constructively to uphold the rights and responsibilities affirmed under international law."

“We cannot allow small communities and municipalities across this country to fall into financial distress because of congressional gridlock which is holding up the establishment of a federal nuclear waste storage facility,” said Courtney. “Our bill will compensate local communities that have become de facto interim storage locations for toxic nuclear waste until a centralized storage location can be opened. This bill is an acknowledgement that communities like Haddam deserve restitution for storing spent nuclear fuel long after the federal government committed to taking on the burden.“

“I am deeply disappointed that Republican leadership refuses to even consider the emergency funding that communities across this country are crying out for to address their most pressing needs such as increasing the number of treatment beds. We are facing down a nationwide public health emergency of almost unprecedented scale, and today Congress took a pass on taking any real action which could help turn the tide against this epidemic of rising drug abuse. The measure we passed today simply does not match the severity of the crisis it is it meant to address."