Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I appreciate this hearing. It is timely given it is the second anniversary of the Dodd-Frank and we need to look at these reforms and the related rules and see how they impact people on the ground.

It is timely given it is the second anniversary of the Dodd-Frank and we need to look at these reforms.

If we are going to have Federal land in this country, then the Federal Government needs to maintain it.

The true threat and the hurt is felt at home by these local and small governments who are bearing the cost of that.

Make no mistake. Retransmission consent was and is a construct of lobbyists and politicians.

I believe in the free market, whose instincts are that deregulation is a good, solid, preferred approach.

I guess my fear is, along the lines of what Senator Smith said, if you introduce more players--and some of these players are hard to find even to clear the rights.

We need to be able to plan. We need to know what the rules are going to be.

I hope that we can find 21st century solutions to 21st century challenges.

Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the urgency that is growing with each passing day for the House to take up and pass the farm bill. Most Senators in this body have a constituency that is being impacted by the worsening drought…

I think the Budget Control Act, which passed last summer, created this process, and led us to sequestration, which is where we are today. This is a function and a clear outcome of having not passed a budget. It is ironic in many respects…

I thank the Senator from New Hampshire for yielding on that point--more important, for the great work she is doing as a member of the Armed Services Committee. She has been a very active member of that committee and a strong and clear…

I have plenty of time for this because this is a very important issue for us, so I thank you for yielding to me and allowing me the opportunity to ask a few questions and to make an opening statement.

Even if you took the $18 million number--I was running some numbers here while I was sitting--it appears to me that what has actually been treated and addressed on Forest Service land is less than 2 percent of the lands that you have…

It underlies the importance of this issue that we have people on both sides of the aisle that are looking to find a solution.

I don't think the Senator from Alabama is wrong at all. In fact, that is what much of the news stories that have been printed in the last few days and reporting on the subject have said. Some of our colleagues on the other side have…

Mr. President, I would say to my colleagues who are here on the floor that this is a defining moment for our country. The most basic responsibility and the most important priority we have as Americans is to defend the country. If we don't…

The Senator from Alabama is correct. That is one of the remarkable things about this. The Commander in Chief, of course, is tasked with the responsibility of being just that, the Commander in Chief. Yet when it comes to the national…