To be fair, these proposals that were laid out do not necessarily come as a total surprise to us. Many of these were also part of last year's budget. Last September there was a senior official from the Treasury Department who raised some…

Madam President, when President Obama delivered his first State of the Union Address several weeks ago, I tell you I was pleasantly surprised by his remarks on energy policy. In addition to calling for bipartisan legislation, the President…

Mr. President, I rise today to honor Dr. William G. Demmert, known by many as Kaagoowu (a man with the strength of a stump) of the Tlingit ``Naasteidi'' Eagle clan--a pioneer in the cause of improving Indian education and the Nation's…

Madam President, I rise today to speak about the same topic the last Senator spoke about. Let me, if I might, start my comments today by complimenting Senator Sessions. I look at that graph that was just up and the one thing it points out…

Madam President, I rise today to support the Conrad-Gregg amendment. Our economic recovery and our Nation's long-term economic health are at risk. Americans are watching and waiting for Congress and the administration to do the right thing…

Mr. President, I commemorate the launch of the 2010 Decennial Census in Noorvik, AK, and thank the U.S. Census bureau for the honor of kicking off this decade's census. Our State is honored to once again have this privilege. I am proud our…

Mr. President, over the past 5 months, I have repeatedly expressed concerns about the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to issue backdoor climate regulations under the Clean Air Act. I spoke at length about this issue on the…

Madam President, I rise today to speak in support of a pending amendment. This amendment is called the Erasing Our National Debt Through Accountability and Responsibility Plan. I wish to start out today by saying I am very proud to be a…

When it is not working within the agency, sometimes there must be a redress through the legislative process.

I understand what you have said.

I think we do recognize that the process is too slow, it is too cumbersome to recognize that you would have three decades, perhaps more, working to seek recognition.

It speaks to a process that, again, as Chairman Dorgan has noted, we want to make sure that when you utilize the process that we have set up through the agency to provide for this recognition, that it not be a--I think Senator Tester used…

We still continue to hear from so many that the current administrative recognition process is insufficient, and we recognize this.

So if these two situations don't qualify as an overriding reason to bypass, what would?

I would suggest that, at least with these groups that we have before us today, the scrutiny has clearly been there, based on what I have seen.

We recognize that it is easier said than done.

Thank you for your leadership on the issue of contract support costs.

Are you saying that we could tap the brains there at Sandia and Los Alamos and say, help us figure out a way that we can have the energy resource without impacting the fishery resource?