Mike Johanns

If VA cannot meet your needs within a certain period of time, then we will allow you, if you choose, to seek private care.

I think we are going to find that the access issue, which you all consistently say is the problem, is going to be easier to identify than to solve.

We talk about how to improve the lives of veterans who have served our country.

I would agree with Senator Johanns, who indicated, you know, what the heck is going on, when he looks at this and considers the budgets that have been requested.

It is systemic. It is cultural. It is people have just adopted this mode of operation as the way of doing business.

I hope is the first of many, many hearings.

I just walk out of the hearing like I have been given an explanation so I will quiet down and let you go back to work, yet I do not see the change that is necessary.

I think all of us agree that the CFTC must have smart, forward-leaning regulation.

This is not a Republican versus Democrat issue. The measure has gained strong bipartisan support.

I can state unequivocally Congress never intended for nonfinancial end-users to be subject to costly margin requirements.

The budget request you are making this year admittedly is sizeable. I appreciate you are a little bit different circumstance. But having said that, it is our job to provide oversight wherever the dollar comes from.

Would you be confident in testifying to the subcommittee today that under the current atmosphere, the current approaches, that Madoff could not repeat what he did some years ago?

Total discretionary spending is due to increase this year by about $1.4 billion--or in the next budget year, I should say.

I am concerned that it is not on schedule, and I want to learn more about that.

I do look forward to hearing from the witnesses today regarding the details of your requests as well as your plans to carry out core missions and implement Dodd-Frank in a responsible manner.

I have seen firsthand Darci's commitment to U.S. agriculture.

I greatly appreciate the opportunity to be here this morning to introduce a friend and a colleague through the years, Darci Vetter.

Leadership is not about convenience and being available when it works into someone's schedule.

I am astonished, absolutely blown away, that she is not here today.

Unfortunately, her absence speaks volumes about lack of transparency.

Almost immediately then Senator Max Baucus spoke up and embraced the idea, and so it became bipartisan from the moment I offered it.

I offered an amendment to establish an Undersecretary for Trade in Foreign Agriculture Affairs.

I applaud you and your team at USDA for recognizing the important role that we play in on these Committees.

I think this is the best Committee in the United States Senate.

What we are trying to signal is that we believe the future for rural America, in part at least, is going to be a regional approach.