I have known Kathleen for a long time. She is not only a very smart person, and an experienced person in the field of economics, but she is a person of great character, and I recommend her fully to the U.S. Senate for confirmation.

I agree with the President and have been actively working with Senate Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens on legislation to streamline current environmental reviews required of critical airport construction projects so the nation can…

It's important to point out that we are not seeking to change, weaken or loosen existing environmental law.

My constituents are frustrated with flying, because of flight delays, cancellations and congestion at our airports.

Last month, President George W. Bush said that the nation needed to expand airport capacity in order to reduce the number of air travel delays and that there were a number of environmental regulations that prohibit the expansion of runways.

We need to bring some order to an important but unproductive environmental review process that threatens the ability of the U.S. aviation system to meet future demands.

We have a capacity crisis in our nation's aviation infrastructure, and unless we build new runways and build them faster than we are now, aviation gridlock will become a permanent feature of air travel.

I look forward to working with you both at the Department of Transportation, and I take pleasure in supporting both your nominations.

Well, again, I would hope that when you find anticompetitive practices, you do more than say, 'Gosh, that is just too bad.'

I think it is an extraordinarily important agency, both from the standpoint of your tools under existing law, and the bully pulpit function that the Federal Trade Commission can perform.

I appreciate your thoughtfulness, and it is really a pleasure to be able to introduce Sean O'Hollaren to the Committee and to support his nomination as Assistant Secretary.

I thought it was a very unfortunate opinion that the Commission issued last week on gas prices.

That would have been one thing. But to just say, there is anticompetitive practices going on, and that is the way it goes, is unacceptable to this Member of Congress.

the President would be vigilant in ensuring that consumers will be protected from price-gouging at the gasoline pump this summer.

I think it is about as anti-free enterprise as anything you can find.

I want to figure out a way to help you and the Republicans and folks on both sides of the aisle to try to find some common ground on issues that we have spent

We Oregonians are very proud to see nominated for this position, and look forward to his confirmation.

Most of the Western states refiners prevented their jobbers from competing with them to supply branded gasoline to independent dealers in metropolitan areas, a practice called redlining.