Anything we can do in this area is going to be a big improvement.

I also thought it was just completely inexcusable that the head of a Federal Department would make such statements about veterans.

We bring them to military service to protect us, and then as they leave military service, to tag them with that kind of label is just enormously unfair.

Both areas that you mentioned, transportation via air and roads, are hugely important in the State that I come from.

I will just wrap up, Mr. Chairman, with this thought. I asked that question mostly to use this opportunity to highlight the importance of these issues.

it always seemed a little high-handed to me that the very junior partner in education, being the Federal Government, ... felt they had the ability to force down the standards

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and let me just say to the Chairman and Ranking Member, this is another excellent hearing.

I am very skeptical, and I think there is reason for that skepticism.

I appreciate the candor of the answer. I think you acknowledge there were some things here that just simply were missed.

I don't want to overpromise this.

What is this going to cost? Second, timing. And that's been mentioned also, but I'll just underscore it.

I have not liked that idea from the beginning. It would seem to me to be just an enormous conflict of interest.

Do we have in our system the cord we can pull that is the safety valve that says, again, in effect, time out.

I think it is a real frustration for us here to be faced with these issues of, well, Mike, this is just way too big to allow it to fail, and, Mike, it is going to take taxpayers' money to unravel the risk that they have gotten themselves…

I certainly don't want to stall growth in this Nation. I mean, gosh, we are the greatest Nation on earth.

I maintain no President can negotiate a trade agreement without TPA.

Let there be no doubt about it. I like Gary Locke a lot.

You did it in a very bipartisan way. You worked with Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.

But if the only option is for these people who are in default or have missed payments, if the only option is bankruptcy, they will probably take that option.

I hear what you are trying to say, and I think you are trying to assure me that, Mike, it isn't going to be that bad.

Well, let me start out and thank the Chairman for holding this hearing, a very, very important topic.

I have very high hopes for this pilot program, because there is, in some cases at least, capacity in some rural areas.

I suspect in his State they have identical problems as we do: just a lack of services in the rural areas.

Telemedicine is a big resource here.

I have seen it at work.