I would encourage you to hurry up because NASA has to make some decisions pretty soon about what its follow-on vehicle--if we're going to have a manned space program, they're going to have to start deciding that pretty quick.

Are we ready to mark up the bill?

I'd work the international community on this issue like crazy, and what I'd do on things like the energy bill...

And what has caused that change in the CEO's minds of insurance companies?

I tried to offer some leadership on this issue in the mid-1990s as the elected insurance commissioner of Florida.

Well, that's what I certainly found out.

You know, Senator, I've been looking forward to being Chairman of the Commerce Committee.

Well, do you think the insurance companies are waking up to reality?

I appreciate your leadership.

I would merely reflect, in conclusion, as we conclude this hearing, the image that is seared in my mind's eye of the view out the window of our spacecraft back at Planet Earth on the 24th flight of the space shuttle, when I was privileged…

Most of our development is along the coast. And, of course, with the rising of the sea, that then threatens property.

at the end of the day, that North Korea is not going to have nukes. And that has to be stated.

Politics often gets in the way, does it not?

if what we are trying to do with North Korea to get them to stop the nuclear program and to stop proliferation and all of those things, we need a quid pro quo for that.

That is why you need my vote.

When would you estimate that you would do a test of the space-based?

How far along are we in the testing of the airborne laser?

With some of the rockets that we are going to go to Mars with, we can do it with that.