One is to respect the role of Congress as the duly elected representatives of the American people in our system of American democracy.

I think when that support is bipartisan, as it is in your case, it highlights once again the institutional value in this body of deferring to and giving great weight to the recommendations of the home State Senators.

I am extremely favorably disposed toward your nomination, but there are these institutional problems that need to be addressed.

It seems that, wittingly or unwittingly, we created a system that it's much harder to hire a full-time DOD employee than it is to write a contract worth 10 or 20 times more.

So, besides just the value of efficiency and productivity gains, this is also about freeing up resources and continuing operations overseas and support the fighting forces.

I would tend to agree with Senator Sessions on this, and I think a lot of it has to do with resources.

Mr. President, let me first thank the Senator from Michigan who has worked so long and hard on this. We do, indeed, have in Rhode Island the distinction of being in the top three or four States for unemployment for month after month after…

Mr. President, I come because we are coming to the end of our workweek. Many of our colleagues are gone already, and others are preparing to go. Another week has gone by in which the Senate has taken no action whatsoever with respect to…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that morning business be extended until 6 p.m, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll. Mr. LeMIEUX. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call…

Mr. President, I am honored to follow my distinguished colleague from Maryland, who has such great legislative and elective experience and speaks with such passion and energy about this issue. I share his concern, and I rise today to speak…

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of Rosa's Law, which will replace all references of ``mental retardation'' with the term ``intellectual disability'' throughout the U.S. Code. I would like to first thank my colleague from New York…

Senator Vitter had a hearing in Louisiana. In fact, he asked me if he could do that and I agreed to allow him to do it.

I would like to echo your message to the administration that this is--it is getting a little late to come before a Congressional Committee and not have a point of view and not have a proposal.

a vast majority of our cyber vulnerability would disappear if we could simply get up to basic public, regular, ordinary levels of patching and security

I appreciate the discussion that has taken place, particularly with respect to e-mail, that I think is confounding to even experts.

I am extremely strongly in favor of pushing as much of this to the private sector as possible.

Today's hearing builds on those and reflects our work with Ranking Member Richard Shelby.