Thank you, Senator Harkin, for your leadership on this, your Strong Start for America's Children Act would serve an additional 1,456 children in Minnesota.

I think there is a case here to be made for additional funding, part of which is to make sure that our workforce--when Dr. Whitehurst talks about the effectiveness of these Head Start programs, and I heard your range was from mildly…

That is why I want to tout my own Early Childhood Care and Education Workforce Improvement Act as part of the solution here.

The reliability of the electric grid is essential to our energy security.

I think it's really important that we engage the law enforcement community both at the Federal level and at the State and local level.

As chairman of the Energy subcommittee, I want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to secure our electric grid.

When you do the Conservation Corps separate, you can catch fish.

I rise to speak about the importance of closing the pay gap for women. I am a cosponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act--an important bill--and I am so honored to be here with my colleagues and the leader of the women in the Senate, Senator…

The combined company would control about 30 percent of the pay television market and 40 percent of the wireline broadband market.

Do you want to get to the third reason?

Competition in the cable industry is one of the most critical issues that this Committee faces for a very simple reason: Cable is the primary way Americans get pay TV and broadband Internet access.

Okay. Thank you very much.

The proposed merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, the two largest cable companies in the country, presents unique issues.

But there have been some challenges, right, with----

there are a lot of very important issues here: the issue of consumers and how they will be protected going forward.

Seven percent of the market was cable.

Competition like this is critical. I know we have said this many times up here just because we believe it creates a market that provides best prices and best services.

I am against this deal because I believe it does not meet either test.