Today's rally celebrated the BRAC commission’s vote to keep Sub Base New London open. This was important because it allows for our submarine technologies to remain a part of the structures of our national defense. This vote was really in my view a battle within the navy between the surface ships and the submariners.

When you have 400 submarines plowing the ocean of the world and more than half of them are being operated by countries that are not necessarily our allies, in fact a lot of them are quite the opposite, it seems important that we be able to respond to that technological threat. Submarines are a stealth technology; they’re what America’s going to need as part of our 21st century national defense.

So this was a big issue, because had we not maintained this base, had it not remained open, then I think the debate would be over, in terms of having a sufficient force of submarines in the 21st century. (The saying goes, “If you can't park it, then you can't build it.”) Thus, it was very important that we carried the day on this, obviously for Connecticut, obviously from a regional perspective, but most importantly from a national perspective.