Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted to enter into a colloquy with my Republican colleague Senator Rubio for up to 20 minutes. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. President, it is an honor to be here with my esteemed colleague from Florida, Senator Marco Rubio. My husband Joe and I are blessed to be the parents of two wonderful children, our daughter Kate, who is 6 years old, and our son Jacob…

Mr. President, I could not agree more with what my colleague from Florida has said, that we need to create a positive climate to create jobs. But one thing we do know is that does not happen by more spending in Washington. The recent…

I thank my colleagues. I think those who are watching this will see we are new Senators back here in the back corner of the Senate. As a new Member of this Chamber, I am deeply disappointed by the lack of work that we have been doing in…

Mr. President, I come to the floor this afternoon to lend my voice to the others who have been here--my colleagues--to talk about the need to come to the table and come up with an agreement around how we are going to deal with raising the…

I wanted to thank all of you for being here and for the important work that you do.

we just want to create a positive climate for all of them to do that, particularly in these difficult economic times.

I wanted to thank Madam Chairman for having this hearing, appreciate it.

SBA and the work that you do is very important in New Hampshire, and I am so pleased that Greta Johansson is here.

I think during the 90s the SBA office in New Hampshire, which virtually kept business afloat in New Hampshire because five of our seven largest banks failed.

And just to be clear, just so I understand, in terms of issues--for example, a do-not-track issue--you envision that this could be something implemented by industry as opposed to us in Congress coming up.

I appreciate that the Coast Guard falls underneath the Department of Homeland Security, as opposed to the Department of Defense.

Mr. President, it is with a heavy heart that I rise today to honor the life of SPC Michael B. Cook, who died on June 6, 2011, from injuries sustained from indirect rocket fire in Baghdad, Iraq, while supporting Operation New Dawn. He gave…

I had a brief follow-up on the mission that you're conducting in Iraq right now, of providing security for the oil platforms that are critical to the Iraq economy.

There has been concern expressed about the withdrawal date at the end of December for our military.

Has there been discussion of whether the Coast Guard would be part of that analysis? Or would you be separate?

But given that it took 2 years for Reclamation to move forward with the title transfer, can you assure the District that Reclamation will continue to move this process forward?

OK. Thank you.