The Department plays a vital role in strengthening the middle class and getting people back to work.

I would say that its mission has never been more important.

He was a great friend, if I just might interrupt, and a wonderful member of this subcommittee and the full Appropriations Committee, so we worked together all these years.

While the economy is moving, I think, in the right direction, too many people are unemployed or underemployed.

I like to point out that, in the recent downturn, statistics show that for every one nondisabled person that lost their job, three disabled people lost their jobs.

I believe we have fixed that problem.

Promoting internationally recognized worker rights in countries around the world helps level the playing field for U.S. workers.

And, again, Mr. Secretary, thank you for your appearance here, and thank you for your outstanding stewardship of the Department of Labor.

The United States Chamber of Commerce committed a couple of years ago, and we're having another summit with them this July 15, committed to hiring a million more people with disabilities by 2015.

Well, let me stop you there and just ask about the DEI. You're right. We started that in 2010.

I'll follow up with--because, as you know, we're trying to get our WIA bill through...

I hope this sequester ends on September 30.

The meeting will come to order. And it looks like it is very much in order.

This is an important coastal protection zone, if you will, for storms for people who live further inland.

We need to ensure that we are doing everything we can to protect our coastal ecosystems.

Three years ago, we were in the middle of the worst man-made environmental disaster in our Nation's history--the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform.

I would expect that we will continue to see a negative impact from the oil on the food chain and on animals and people for years to come.

That large?