Will that information be shared publicly, or will there be provisions that will allow for protecting any trade secrets that might exist?

What I'm trying to understand is whether or not our oil production, offshore and onshore, is up or down?

Improving the Department's performance is particularly important to me in light of recent Department of the Interior reports that indicate that while overall production domestically is at an all-time high, but it's not necessarily the case…

Are you concerned that what might result is lower bonus bids coming out, less production on Federal lands, which then results in less revenue to the Treasury?

It is something I think--it is important for those of us that are looking at this from different agencies to understand that there is a different perspective that is ongoing.

the congressional intent was that part of these new fees be used to expand the capacity so that we could expedite the orderly development of offshore there.

I do think it was prudent that we conducted this study.

You do agree that it is's an important part of what this was all about?

I would certainly concur with that. And again, I would repeat my request, that you consider sending a general officer as part of that site survey.

I want to make sure that it is working as we had hoped that it would, and we would not see, again, some of the somewhat stunning failures that we have seen from it.

Do you think that in that situation this particular condition of the authorizing statute was vague in any way?

This seems like a pretty basic managerial function, so I was surprised to hear that Mr. Allison felt it was lacking.

What is a reasonable prospect of repayment? Is it an 80 percent chance that it is going to be repaid, a 70 percent? Is it higher, is it lower? What is reasonable?

I would say 'reasonable prospect' would probably mean more than a 50 percent probability, but others might define it as a 90 percent probability.

Is that happening, though?

If I had to assign a letter grade to the Department at this point in time, it is not a passing grade.

I think it is vital for our committee to be conducting regular and intensive oversight over the programs and the agencies that are under our jurisdiction.

How do we finesse that one?

Let me ask you one more then, and this is a requirement to 'provide an amount sufficient to carry out the project.'

This is not tweaking a program, but some serious changes to this program so that we do have assurances to the taxpayers.

on roll call vote number 28, I too voted aye and it was my intention to vote no. I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted to change the vote since it will not affect the outcome. It is for exactly the same reason that Senator Collins…

I want to take you back up north and discuss our capabilities in the Arctic.

It is critical that we make sure that we've got adequate funding for our stock assessments.

We need to really now take a real steadfast attempt to bring these things that are always out of control, always coming over budget, under really a far greater fiscal discipline.

This DEIS is simply too big a deal for your Department to not be able to answer some basic and pretty fundamental questions about its very existence.