Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 23, 2013, at 2:30 p.m. in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The…

it's one of those things that doesn't cost much, and actually the businesses are very happy.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate, on April 23, 2013, at 9:30 a.m., in room SH-216 of the Hart Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 23, 2013, at 10 a.m., in room 215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled…

the fiscal year 2013 enacted amount was $682 million, so roughly a 50-percent decrease in those block grants.

I believe that the President's request is $350 million, if the numbers I have are right.

I first wanted to ask about, we have a mill in John Day that has been at high risk of closing.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities of the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 23, 2013, at 2:30 p.m. The PRESIDING…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on April 23, 2013, at 2:30 p.m. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered…

this is a provision based on a law that we adopted in Oregon when I was Speaker that worked incredibly well.

Thank you. And I do appreciate the advocacy for funding. This has been a key, key set of programs.

With the changing or the more extensive droughts, we're going to see that this problem of accumulated fuels becomes of more and more dreaded effect.

If we lose the infrastructure that's out there because we don't have predictable supply, then it all falls on the taxpayers, it all falls on your budget.

I just want to note that a 'for example' is that we spend $80 billion-plus in the home mortgage interest deduction to promote homeownership, but almost none of that goes to lower income families buying starter homes.

Thank you. And are you satisfied with the stewardship contracting reauthorization as structured in the Senate farm bill?

Okay. So we anticipate getting that done, and hopefully, we'll get it arranged through the House.

We're looking at a proposed budget that cuts the hazardous fuels reduction in half.

We had a fire the size of Rhode Island last year in Oregon.