Mr. President, I rise this evening to speak to the urgent imperative of job creation in our country and impress upon my colleagues that if we are serious about assisting our Nation's small businesses--the very catalysts that will lead us…

Thank you, Mr. President. (The remarks of Ms. Snowe pertaining to the introduction of S. 3103 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'') The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 10 additional minutes in morning business. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

If the President is serious about promising fiscal restraint, he has to quit treating taxpayer dollars like Monopoly money.

I know that in the Department of Justice instance that you have to review this transaction based on substantially lessening competition.

Because, obviously, in this instance, that will become even exponentially greater.

Is the administration considering the advantages of a Housing First approach to help address the growing number of homeless people?

I was wondering whether or not there have been any internal changes in both agencies with respect to the merger review process?

It is a mistake for the administration to ignore the housing needs in our rural communities.

According to a Pentagon survey, 90 percent of military personnel utilize commissary benefits.

I hope that as MMS looks at leasing opportunities on the OCS for renewable resources, that you will revise the draft regulations which do not include the Gulf of Maine at this time.

I do not want our country to lose the edge in the development of alternative energy, particularly offshore wind, because our permitting process is so slow and cumbersome.

A tremendous opportunity there, as Senator Collins well knows, in part because of the magnitude of the resource and how close it is to those load centers.

I'm committed to helping you. I'll have our rail administrator in Maine, whenever we can get all the stakeholders together, and we will work with you on a plan to get this funded.

Refusing to deal with them, or putting off the tough choices, is not a responsible way to go about it.

I hope, as you do the second round of TIGER grant applications... that you'll take a hard look at that application.

It's a real problem that we're passing just these short-term extensions. I supported and helped advance the bill...

We need a clear-cut, coherent, and detailed blueprint, detailing how taxpayer dollars will be spent to reach our transportation infrastructure goals.