Will you commit to this subcommittee that you will hold off on pursuing the LSOC model for the futures market until the cost-benefit analysis for the LSOC for swaps has been fully evaluated?

We all benefit from effective oversight that promotes fair and orderly derivative markets.

So a school system, for example, could buy them in quantity at wholesale prices.

Let's see if we could get the first couple of witnesses in because otherwise they are going to have to hang around for quite awhile.

We would urge Congress to increase funding to the USGS to modernize and upgrade its natural hazards monitoring and warning systems.

We believe it is essential to keep at least level funding for this program.

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow unto you as sunshine flow unto trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms, their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

As a matter of fact, BLM and the U.S. Forest Service, which are trying to comply with the subcommittee's directive of last year, are actually working on a plan now to try to already protect northwest bat species because they are already…

Let me just reiterate my appreciation for the two folks who spoke so eloquently on behalf of the USGS and for underscoring the need for water infrastructure.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

We have got to figure out a way to pay for it, and I do not see where we are going to get the money in discretionary spending to pay for the safe drinking water, waste water treatment systems, and the like.

We are concerned about cuts in some of the water programs, the water research, Water Resources Research Act Program.

Thank you all for making the effort to come here. You know, we are here every day, but I know it takes a lot of logistics and cost and disruptions in your schedules to get here.

It is just so integrally important in defining who we are as a Nation.

Despite a somewhat abbreviated hearing schedule this year, I am proud that the Subcommittee is able to hold hearings on these very important programs.

We believe we need to increase the construction budget; otherwise, we are just making that backlog larger and more of a problem for future years.

NCAI looks forward to working with this Subcommittee to ensure that federal programs that fulfill the trust responsibilities to tribes continue to receive bipartisan support in the appropriations process.

I know that you share my love of the humanities, Tom, and this is one of the nice things about this Committee, that we have some tangential input into promoting them.