Blame must primarily be placed at the feet of these financial institutions which gambled and then cashed in on exorbitant transaction fees for creating exotic new financial products.

The governance structures, the firm managers, and sophisticated models all failed to capture the magnitude of the risks that were building.

When self-interest and market discipline break down, we hope that the safety net of regulators will guide us out of the storm.

The trillions of dollars in losses stand as witness to the many failures of risk management at these firms.

I have been long concerned about the tendency of agencies with national and homeland security responsibilities to focus exclusively on strengthening their own programs.

This is not a war that we are going to win just by military might alone.

Our allies in this effort cite the situation of easy access to firearms in the United States as a major threat to their stability and consequently as a major national security threat to the United States.

We depend on that when it's fully up to be about 40 percent to almost 90 percent of the movement of passengers.

If we could keep Manas that would be great. If not, we do have other options.

Thank you for holding this important hearing as we begin the process of reauthorizing our nation's surface transportation policy.

I think all the questions so far have suggested that we are on the verge of a significant change in the way we fund transit projects and transportation projects.

I would just urge you to take another look at that during authorization.

One other way, I think, that would link operating assistance would be to those systems that are environmentally advanced.

It seems to be absolutely counterintuitive.

We have to take strides in this nation to make sure that our big cities--can avoid that to the greatest extent possible.

I think we need a new, more stable funding mechanism for transit across the country.

initiated a review of the Government's overall cybersecurity strategy and supporting activities.

the CSIS Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency.