I just want to say that I am concerned about the court's decision in Carcieri and the impact it may have on those tribes that were recognized after 1934.

In that case, the Supreme Court held that the Secretary of the Interior could NOT acquire lands in trust status for an Indian tribe acknowledged after 1934.

I believe that Congress will likely need to act to clarify this issue for tribes and to ensure that the land in trust process is available to all tribes regardless of when they were recognized.

Tribes ceded close to 200 million acres of land during the treaty-making and removal periods prior to 1881.

I'm stunned that the budget essentially just moves away from hydrogen fuel cell research and stops projects in the middle of these projects.

Coal is my worst nightmare.

to see these contracts shut down in the middle of the contract on very important research, I think is not a smart thing to do.

I regret that a good number of your nominations are all being held up.

But, Mr. Babbitt, how could they be enforced if you put a co-pilot on a plane flying into Buffalo, New York in the winter with icing, who says on the cockpit recorder, 'I've never flown in icing and I'm very nervous about this?' That…

we're going to hold some hearings. We hope the first one will be June 10, but we'll be making notice of when the hearings will be, on the issue of aviation safety.

I intend to support all of you. I think you are well suited for the nominations that the President has given you.

I'm going to strongly support your nomination. I told you when we met in my office, I am very pleased you have decided to accept this opportunity, but we have not had consistent leadership.

You can observe more movement in a glacier than in the Department of Energy on some issues.

I'm hoping to help you with the funding for these projects, by the way, because I think--well, we may not be around in the long term, in the long term, we're all dead.

I think the Department's made a significant mistake here. And I, for one, am not interested in shutting down these research projects.

I think most of the stimulus funding is considered to be demonstration projects rather than R&D.

I would hope that we would continue having NREL as the center of that research.

I don't disagree with that at all, but do you think 50 years from now, that your hope is more efficient internal combustion engines, more diesel engines on the road?