I actually helped one of our local volunteer fire companies write their annual grant in a memorable all-nighter.

I want to commend you for how swiftly the investigations proceeded.

The challenge that you and your leadership team face of striking an appropriate balance between security, privacy, and commerce is a very difficult and delicate balance.

I think it is appropriate, Dr. Ellis, that a lot of the questioning has focused on the revelations that you have brought to light because it speaks to this much larger issue of an explosion of for-profit institutional care in this Country.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your work as chairman of the Western Caucus. The western States are roughly the 17 western States and three island governments, but they also include Members from States who have very similar problems…

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to point out what States are experiencing in relation to our Federal budget. So let's start with the Federal budget. Here we have all our revenue for 2011 in this column. Here we have just our…

Mr. President, for a very long time, in a bipartisan way, a number of people have come together to save the U.S. Postal Service. Senator Lieberman and Senator Carper and Senator Collins and Senator Brown have worked very hard, as have many…

I have been proud of the work that they do, at least in the Minneapolis airport where I work with them.

This is bipartisan legislation that we have introduced with Senators Schumer, Rubio, Blunt, Mikulski, Kirk, and Lee.

I hope we are not going to be driven to a government shutdown by our Republican colleagues.

But that is not what the Ag Committee chose to do. What they chose to do was to cut food nutrition programs that will cut food assistance immediately to every single household receiving those food nutrition programs.

The reality is that they put up something that didn't contain any of the backup that the President provided.

It is very clear that it is deficit reduction.

Apparently, our Republican colleagues decided to put the taxpayer at risk instead.

I think we all agree that that meat-axe, indiscriminate approach is the wrong way to go.

That, Mr. Chairman, I think is a twisted result.

Our Republican colleagues continue to resist the balanced approach to deficit reduction that has been recommended by every bipartisan group.

Our Republican colleagues continue to take the position that we are not going to take one penny of revenue for the purpose of deficit reduction.