Well, just to summarize, will you work with us to try to help us identify the potential policy that could result in, on a cost-benefit analysis, significant savings if we were to implement it?

It is estimated that improper payments cost taxpayers almost $100 billion last year alone. If we created a Department of Improper Payments, it would actually be one of the biggest departments in our Government.

So given that there are some of these other factors, temporary versus permanent, short term versus longer term, and obvious deleveraging that is going on in the country right now, all of those are factors that you would have to put into…

We hear a lot of talk about waste, fraud, and abuse. It is a trite phrase, but the reality is there is a significant amount of truth to it.

I think that is a very clever way to do this.

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio). The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Franken). Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The result was announced--yeas 45, nays 52, as follows…

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio). The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The result was announced--yeas 89, nays 9, as follows: [Rollcall Vote…

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio). The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Franken). Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The result was announced--yeas 50, nays 48, as follows…

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Coats). The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The result was announced--yeas 47, nays 51, as follows: [Rollcall Vote…

I rise today to say a few words about aspects of the present bill that differ from the bill that passed the Senate in March. I commented at length on the Senate bill when that bill was before this body. Since the present bill and the…

I rise today to submit for the Record two letters addressed to the chairman and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. The letters were written by Judge Michael McConnell, a former member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the…

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio). The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 93, nays 5, as follows: [Rollcall Vote…

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio). The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Bennet). Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The result was announced--yeas 96, nays 2, as follows…

I ask unanimous consent to speak for as much time as I might consume. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered. ____________________

I rise today to urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1249, the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. Some other responsibilities may take me from the Senate floor during this coming week when we will be debating the act and therefore I wanted to…

I appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Senator Risch.

We need to do it elsewhere.

I urge the committee to reject S. 1344 on grounds that it is not ecologically or scientifically sound.

When I was last before the committee, the fire was still raging in eastern Arizona.

Such is the case with respect to the legislation that Senator McCain and I have introduced--S. 1344, the Arizona Wallow Fire Recovery and Monitoring Act.

I will support this legislation but with very serious reservations. I start with the premise that this debt limit extension is not the one piece of legislation that will change everything wrong in Washington. It is, at best, a reversal of…

Republicans have never taken our eye off of job creation.

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe). The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 50, nays 49, as follows: [Rollcall…

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. DeMint), the Senator from Texas (Mrs. Hutchison), and the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe). The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schumer). Are there any other…

let me quote from a piece of this. The editorial starts by noting that the President: . . . inherited a recession and responded by blowing up the U.S. balance sheet. Spending as a share of GDP in the last three years is higher than at any…