Thank you. Do you want to end just by saying why you think this Federal legislation is so important?

the fact that 95.1 percent of utility companies had experienced copper theft in the past year; that 86.6 percent of utility companies had a process in place to track incidents of copper theft; and yet there were more than 50,000…

how money is divided and also congressional seats, something my State cares a lot about right now.

I think it is interesting because, as you said, you are a State that has oil, natural gas, but you had some popular bi-partisan support for putting a renewable electricity standard in place.

I particularly wanted to welcome the Governor of my neighboring State, North Dakota, Governor Hoeven.

It is keep privacy and the trust of the American people.

we like participation, and hopefully that will transcend with the census as well.

I think everyone knows by law that they have to do the census.

I have been disappointed by the House renewable standard. I just really do not think it is going to get us to where we want to go.

As we consider this legislation, I will be evaluating this and any other proposal on three key principles: One, does the legislation make food safer? Two, does the legislation hold the regulator accountable? And three, does the legislation…

And at the end of all that work, why would we not expect a different political result than the one we saw in the current Yucca Mountain debate?

However, we need mechanisms that work, not mechanisms that simply add heavy-handed regulation to low-risk commodities.

So I want to talk about permanent storage solutions because finding a real solution is the federal government's responsibility and I believe that is part of my responsibility here.

Are we looking out further, in your best guesstimate?

I do not believe it is within the capacity of this Budget Committee... to make a ten thousand-year budget projection.

I do have concerns about certain provisions in H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. It is important that Congress get it right.

How long do you really think it is going to take the blue ribbon commission to produce these recommendations?

I am the co-chair of the E911 caucus along with Senator Burr and we have been focusing on emergency issues in Minnesota.