Thomas R. Carper: “If I could interrupt for just a moment. I am going to Chair this Committee for just a little while.”

We are delighted to be able to move the legislation today.

We are better off when we hear community concerns at the beginning of the process rather than at the end.

Not really. I have just come from the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, which is having a hearing on the Key Bridge, the bridge in Baltimore that was badly damaged.

If I had known--as you know, the breadth of the issues that we cover in this Committee are enormous. It is impossible for any of us to fully master each of them.