Robert C. Byrd: “With all respect, you are the Administration's point man on economic and fiscal policy.”

I thank you for holding these hearings on the 9/11 Commission's recommendations for intelligence reform.

I do not believe that we can overstate the importance or the difficulty of the challenge before the Congress.

Our service men and women, now more than ever, are depending on your leadership to put the military medical system on a new track.

I cannot support this item unless there are some limitations on it, unless Congress can exercise its power over the purse, as the Constitution provides.