Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support bringing forward Chairman Dodd's regulatory reform bill. The chairman has just spoken with great passion about how we got here. I want to take perhaps somewhat of a similar tack…

MARK WARNER, Virginia

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Bau Nyugen, a fellow in my office, be granted the privilege of the floor during consideration of S. 3217, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without…

Madam President, let me thank my colleague from Colorado, a member of the Banking Committee, who has been part of trying to get this bill right over the last 14, 15 months. He has spent a career in the private sector, as I did. I think we…

Again, one final comment. I know the Presiding Officer is a new Member as well. This is one of those moments when there has been a year and a half of bipartisan work that has gone on, when there seems to be a commonality of interest in…

Coal has been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, the foundation of our Nation's energy resources.

We can--and must--do better by our miners when it comes to enforcing safety regulations and ensuring that companies don't walk away from their responsibility to their workers.

We have a continuing duty to establish, and insist upon, proper standards of safety for those who work in this industry.

I would like to thank Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member Enzi for holding this hearing on strengthening enforcement and creating a culture of compliance at mines and other dangerous workplaces.

Mr. President, I appreciate that. I have a question. I appreciate the comments of the Senator from North Dakota, and I agree with his comments. I have to say--and I know some of my colleagues were here earlier. Before I came to this body…

I continue to be impressed by the caliber of the candidates that the Virginia bar has been putting forward.

I give my full-fledged endorsement to [John Gibney].

I cannot in any way explain to folks in Virginia, why in a kind of a secret way someone can put somebody's future on hold indefinitely makes any sense.

The focus has been legislation. I do not think the Nation has been diminished.

If you take away Minority resistance, the role the Majority Leader and his senior leadership plays vastly changes in the whole game.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Senator Klobuchar, Senator Sessions, Senator Grassley, Senator Coburn, for this opportunity.

I think, in short, the chief executive ought to have their team in place.

In John Gibney, we've got somebody who I think is a lawyer's lawyer, somebody who understands those challenges.