Mike Johanns

I have some colleagues that--I have gone over my time, and so I hate to cut it off here...

Even though I did not support it, I want it implemented right.

I want to say that publicly and tell you how much I appreciate it as one of the new people here.

Pipelines are everywhere. I don't believe any State is unaffected by what's going on in this hearing today.

It is one thing to listen; it is another thing to hear.

I have received a letter from one or more farm groups in their state, to be blunt about it, attacking your agency.

There is a feeling out in the country that you walked in, the President walked in, and every idea for more regulation was dusted off and cut loose, and agriculture is under attack.

Let me wrap up with something. If the Nelson amendment passes, this is the effect: These are businesses, real people who are going to be hurt because they are left out. In the State of Iowa, 3,334 businesses are left out; in the State of…

But the truth is, the IRS has already announced steps to implement that exact same policy. The unfortunate thing about this exemption is that it will cause more problems, not fewer: pay by check, pay by credit card; property, nonproperty…

I am worried that in that part of the world, folks are going to reach the conclusion that this administration is powerless to get the South Korean Trade Agreement approved.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I think we have an obligation here to try to deal with people's expectation of privacy.

I don't like the sounds of what you describe, just to be very blunt about it.

It seems to me that the baseline is going to be very, very constricted.

I want to say thank you for holding this hearing. We all agree on one thing: this is about as important an issue as we could deal with on the Committee.

I have been impressed with the dozens of claims pilot projects that VA has got up and running.

I say with some degree of pride that, for example, the Lincoln office in my home State of Nebraska is well ahead of the VA's national average for processing claims.

I oftentimes--and I am sure other Committee Members also hear this--I hear about the difficulty of interfacing recordkeeping with DOD and VA.

None of this is very reassuring to me, and you understand why. This is a big project with significant issues.

The mission statement of the Office of Pipeline Safety indicates that environmental safety is within their jurisdiction.

I must admit--and I'm not making any claims about this being unsafe. Maybe it's the safest pipeline ever going to be constructed in world history.

I raise that because today I want to get a better understanding relative to a project that is going on in Nebraska, the Keystone pipeline project.

How you could come to the conclusion that shoehorning into a 1930s regimen for the system we have today is the most solid foundation just perplexes me.

Why wouldn't that give more security to the marketplace, that we're going to follow the Federal system in coming to conclusions on this?

Do I have the power? Because, you see, if you don't, then we are thwarting our governmental system.