I think the fact that the President and the Vice President are both dedicated to this issue is indication of just how important it is to this administration.

The United States is certainly willing to continue to play a facilitating role.

Let's do that. We can do it.

The Energy Security Trust is a common-sense proposal to use some of the revenue that we obtain in the form of royalties from offshore oil and gas production and invest it in research dedicated to alternative forms of energy.

We're finally poised to take control of our energy future.

Obamacare makes the program even worse because it creates a new entitlement that is not funded.

Mr. President, today I rise to join with Senator Durbin to introduce the Great Lakes Water Protection Act. This bipartisan legislation would set a date certain to end sewage dumping in the Great Lakes, America's largest source of surface…

In a siloed payment system, there is no accountability.

The bill that was passed was the Senate bill, without hearings, without movement through the committee.

I would just like to remind him that we had not one hearing on this healthcare law before it was passed on the floor.

I was the ranking member of the Health Subcommittee when this law got passed.

It is a selective admission process. And their argument is, look, this shows that the system isn't being abused and so forth.

So when these things are manipulated--and I know that is a characterization, but I will characterize it as a manipulation--when they are manipulated, they are manipulated for benefit of one at the demise of another hospital or the demise…

It was the Speaker at that time who said the American people, we have to pass the bill before we know what is in it.

Because this is a zero-sum game, right?

Mr. President, among Chicago's most treasured assets is Lake Michigan. The Great Lakes are among this country's most valuable natural resources, but the lakes face many natural and man-made threats. I'm pleased to join my Illinois…

He was an extraordinary man. What a legacy he leaves around the world, not just in Chicago and in Washington.

Mr. President, I rise today to discuss two bills I am introducing--one to maintain navigation on the Mississippi River during extreme weather and the second, to improve the Nation's water infrastructure, including locks and dams on the…