I will raise one quick issue though. That is the--during your tenure as CFO of NASA there was a situation where there were a series of documents that were subpoenaed.

So I think it speaks to the significance of the nomination that we have here today to be chairman of the FERC.

I cannot help but join the bouquet tossing that is going on here today, about not only the amendment Senator Hoeven and Senator Klobuchar have introduced as it relates to our nonprofits, but again the other measures that have been brought…

I, too, wish to thank the Senator from Colorado and the Senator from Maine for their leadership in this area. When we talk about being efficient, we think: OK. Let's coordinate, collaborate, and cooperate so we do better with what it is we…

I thank my colleague, the chairman of the Energy Committee, for his comments on not only this very important legislation but his leadership on energy issues as we have worked together on the Energy Committee, a committee that I know the…

I thank the Senator for his support of this legislation and for his inquiry about Section 6 of the Act. Streamlining the licensing process for ``closed-loop pumped storage'' projects will encourage development of new and important sources…

It's long been my position that the process for determining Puerto Rico's preferred political status should come from Puerto Rico and not from Washington, DC.

What I'm trying to understand is exactly what enhanced Commonwealth is and the question really here is whether or not it's consistent with the U.S. Constitution.

Executive branch officials and congressional committee leaders--including you, Mr. Chairman, and Senator Murkowski--have said that this proposal is impossible for constitutional and other reasons during each the Clinton, George W. Bush…

When I use the term valid status options, I'm referring to the continuation of the current Commonwealth status, statehood, independence and free association similar to what the United States has with the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and…

the process to determine Alaska's future was driven from Alaska, not from Washington, DC.

The fact that Puerto Rico has been engaged in this issue for also, many, many decades, but the fact that you have as many options as you do makes it perhaps, even more difficult than Alaska faced when it was just an up or down.

As someone who was born in Alaska when we were still a territory, I do have great sympathy for the desire of the people of Puerto Rico to resolve their political status. It took Alaska 92 years. . . . Puerto Rico has been working on it for…

Now that the plebiscite has been held it's clear to me that a majority of Puerto Ricans do not favor the current territorial status.

last week the leadership sought unanimous consent to discharge S. 1294, a bill to designate as wilderness certain public land in the Cherokee National Forest in the State of Tennessee, from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee…

The Montana Wilderness Association strongly and enthusiastically supports the Heritage Act.

We kind of lost that credibility at this point. Nobody believes that we're going to be----

But we're going to do everything we can because it seems to me to just allow this to go on and on and on as we heard in the discussion with Senator Risch, means that we have a solution that, at least, everyone agrees is unacceptable.

I want to thank you for your leadership on this issue, working with you, Senator Alexander, Senator Feinstein, in trying to come together over the course of many months to really find this path forward.

We know that there are provisions within this bill, there are certain segments that are not universally supported, some areas that were perhaps not addressed to everyone's satisfaction.

I think that all of our communities have expressed an interest in considering moving forward with this process.

We chose the single administrator structure with an enhanced oversight board as a way to streamline the process and get the casks moving.

Is it your belief that given what we currently have with our used nuclear fuel and what we will anticipate in the future, that we will need more than one repository?

If we can get this resolved how do you see new development of new nuclear plants moving forward?

But they're also looking for economic development opportunities and job creation.