I rise today to reintroduce legislation, being cosponsored by my colleague Senator Mark Begich from Alaska, to clarify Federal mining law and remedy a problem that has arisen from the extension process for ``small'' miner land claims…

I rise to speak to a bill that I am reintroducing, being cosponsored by my colleague Mark Begich from Alaska, to resolve a land conveyance dispute in Northwest Alaska, the Salmon Lake Land Selection Resolution Act. Shortly after Alaska…

Yes. I mean, in some places, it is a political number.

Do you include these prospects in your assessment, either the BP-Rosneft deal or just anything in the Arctic?

I think automatic enrollment for young people is really one of the most effective ways to get them to save in the plan.

So, we help them along initially with the enrollment.

We essentially have money buried beneath our own soil, but instead choose to hemorrhage nearly $1 billion a day out of our economy.

I think an important thing to recognize is, we can't talk about investments unless you've saved for it.

The American people expect their Government to keep energy affordable, but right now, it is failing on that front.

At times, our energy policy goes beyond frustrating and becomes simply irresponsible.

Doesn't that give us less assurance. When we are talking about the concerns that we are seeing in the Middle East right now, to know that you have most of your spare capacity located in one country, what kind of assurance does that give us?

I think there is strong bipartisan agreement that our Nation is far too dependent on foreign oil.

But what you are saying is we don't have a uniform definition as to how we are defining reserves, and that doesn't allow us to do an apples-to-apples comparison. Is that correct?

Mr. Newell, yesterday the Department of Energy released a finding stating that the construction of an oil pipeline out of Canada into the United States would reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

I just wanted to confirm.

If we lose a large-diameter pipeline like we have up north that brings crude into the lower 48, what is the economic impact of this?

As you know, the throughput is declining to what we believe is dangerously low levels, and if we don't take some very serious steps in the very short term to add more oil into that line within the next few years, there is a real chance…

This legislation will be very helpful to assuring the long-term supply of medical isotopes in the U.S.

I think you will find this is a committee where we jump into the interesting, complex, sometimes contentious issues with great relish, but do so with a degree of civility, honesty, and attention to the work that yields good product.

Given the current world production levels, how long does it take to accumulate enough of the radioactive waste product that's left over to really pose a proliferation risk?

Here in the United States, where do we currently export our highly enriched uranium to for medical isotope production?

But right now, because you have so much production centered in Europe, you have a stumbling block if something happens.

Is there something that we should or should not include in this legislation that would speak to that as an issue?

It is important that we do some reruns.

We have not had here in this country a domestic supply since 1989.