Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements related to the resolution…

Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll. The assistant editor of the Daily Digest proceeded to call the roll.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Regulatory Capture

Mr. President, the majority leader indicated today that he would be preparing legislation on energy to deal with a number of different issues, among them the response we should make to the terrible spill, geyser of oil gushing into the…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Banking Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 5502 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the bill be printed in the Record…

Mr. President, I understand that H.R. 5618 has been received from the House and is at the desk. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct. The clerk will read the title of the bill for the first time. The legislative clerk read as…

Mr. President, I rise to discuss the appointment by President Obama of Dr. Donald Berwick as Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. I disagree, respectfully, with my distinguished colleague from Arizona. I guess I…

The Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan report identified in particular KBR, which collected nearly $32 billion since 2001...

I am hoping that the process that we undertake through this task force will ultimately lead to having some confidence to add a savings number into the budget.

we are well over half a trillion dollars a year going down this pipe, so it is worth making sure we can track it to the end.

I think this is exactly the sort of hearing that we envisioned when I asked Chairman Conrad to set up this Task Force on Government Performance for the purpose of trying to better evaluate Government performance, efficiency savings…

Thank you, Senator Warner, and thank you both for your testimony.

Clearly, Government contracting is an important area because, as you have pointed out, the extent of it and the hundreds of billions of dollars that flow through it just gets bigger every day.

There is always the danger in the contracting oversight world of what I call and what economists have for a long time called regulatory capture.

I understand that. That was the holding of the Court. But my focus is on this particular finding of fact that they made, which was, A, unusual and I think peculiar from a Supreme Court; B, factually wrong in everybody's experience who has…

Thank you for our time together. I wish you well. And I appreciate how well and with what good humor and how openly you have answered all of our questions through this long ordeal.

the courts should defer to Congressional fact finding