I have a particular interest in that budget as the representative of the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.

The natural resources of our country need to be protected, maintained and sustained, and that is the job of all of these land management agencies.

Climate change is already here. Our ecosystems have changed and you can document it through fire.

There is a certain appeal to blowing things up and starting over. But there are unintended consequences that come from that.

I think the observation is correct. I think by and large the agencies take their mission seriously and they implement them well.

There has been a lot of debate here in Congress about what the TARP funds went to: Was it consumer lending, or was it safety and soundness?

I don't have one single penny in any of your banks, not one, not one, because I don't want my money put into CDOs and credit default swaps and making humongous bonuses.

If we can bring down that remand rate, there is no question that we can improve the timeliness of our decisionmaking overall within the system.

the time might be ripe for shortening certain statutory and regulatory response periods for the purposes of expediting the processing of claims and appeals.

From our perspective, it does not work and it needs to be removed.

I am inclined to agree with my colleagues that it has not worked out well.

I would like you to take a clean piece of paper and I would like you to design the system as if we were standing up a process of processing claims and allowing for appeals.

I think that we have to hit this fairly accurately from a standpoint of the size of these institutions.

I think we would all agree that is unacceptable.

I am anxious to hear those individuals who are here to testify, and I thank you for calling this hearing.

You have called for it to be closed.

It's going to be costly to them...

A national RES would be good for the environment, good for the economy, and good for our country.