Richard Shelby

But if you cannot have it all, and you cannot--I wish you could, and I wish that I were here when we owed no money as a Nation, because I think a lot of us could get together and have a lot of good ideas including investment in education…

Mr. Secretary, as we think of Pell grants, do we not have to think of them in the overall budget process of the Department of Education?

We cannot starve the future. We cannot starve our children of food and sustenance. We cannot starve them of an education.

That would herald, if it were approved by FDA--It's in clinical trials now.

But they are not the only part of the education part.

However, our Nation is $14 trillion in debt, and I think we must rein in spending.

But it holds promise for the people with cystic fibrosis and their families.

This has been out how long now?

The unsustainable growth in the costs of the Pell Grant program continues to be an anchor dragging down the entire budget for the Department of Education.

I am sure it is a concern of the two colleagues of mine.

Now, how are we going to pay for it? That is the bottom line.

I was very pleased that Senator Reid's plan would virtually close the Pell shortfall for the next 2 years.

One of the root causes to health disparity is the obesity epidemic that is rampant in our Nation.

I am gravely concerned that the Department of Education has delayed some of the tough choices that are necessary to ensure national economic stability.

A huge breakthrough, hopefully, for cystic fibrosis.

I support Federal investment in basic biomedical research and development.

It is imperative we do not sacrifice this source for effective policy making and analysis.

I've been in this field for 25 years. I've not seen more excitement and hope about a therapeutic intervention in that whole time until now.

I believe the need for an entity to straddle the world's research and industry is clear.

I believe it's critical to ensure support for translational research; that is, research that moves a potential therapy from development to the market.

We want to help these people, because if we don't help them, as he's pointed out, they will be--a lot of them will be in trouble.

If we can get them back in the workforce, it will help them readjust to civilian life, because they've gone through a heck of a lot.

I want to--I'm not proposing we abolish Job Corps. I'm thinking, in trying to work with you and Senator Cochran and others, to improve it.

We're facing dire circumstances.

It was the worst that we've experienced in my lifetime, and probably in most people's lifetime in the whole South.