We have an extensive system of highways, ports, locks and dams, and airports.

Almost 70 percent of U.S. ag exports travel the upper Mississippi River and the Illinois waterway system.

Most of the locks and dams on the upper Mississippi River system are over 60 years old and many are in serious need of repair and rehabilitation.

Somewhere in the system you need to make significant changes. If the dams are not removed, we may well be forced to acquire 1 million acre-feet of water from Southern Idaho irrigators, taking up to 643,000 acres of land out of production, eliminating more than 6,500 jobs and eliminating as much as $430 million in income.

No question that the ports are one of the true vulnerabilities. So little cargo is inspected that the likelihood of getting something through a port is very high.

Since 2000, we have lost 2.7 million manufacturing jobs, of which 500,000 jobs were in high-tech industries such as telecommunications and electronics.