That is a good idea. The reason I have done it this way is because I am trying to say that we in the Senate and in the House have an obligation to keep the government running, and we should be treated just like other Federal employees…

It says this on the front page: ``With shutdown looming, GOP freshmen are wild cards.'' When you ask the Republican Members of the House where this is going, they say they don't know. The government could shut down; we don't know. Later, I…

I thank the Senator from Pennsylvania for working hard on this piece of legislation. It is very simple. No budget, no pay. That is it. We cannot have no function of government more important than passing a budget and keeping us going. The…

The Bush administration stopped any and all forward motion on carbon pollution reduction for the entire time they were there.

We are in a very difficult time right now because we are getting out of the deepest recession since the Great Depression. If we go back and look at the headlines when our President was inaugurated, we see the pace of job loss and we see…

I think that your budget is a tough budget. You are cutting. But what is going on around this place is going against the American people.

the major, major landmark environmental laws were signed by Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George Herbert Walker Bush.

Isn't it true--thank you, Senator Whitehouse--that carbon pollution comes out of the same stack as other forms of air pollution?

Basically, we are saying that if we fail to keep this government open, or to lift the debt ceiling, we Members of Congress should not receive our pay. It is pretty straightforward. I think that is, in essence, unfair, if we have a…

All I ask you to do is tell the truth and follow the law.

But no American would try to balance their household budget by skimping on their kids' safety.

People want to repeal the Clean Air Act, just bring it to the floor, we will debate that, and oh, boy, will the American people weigh in.

When you say that you are stopping the EPA from doing their job under the Clean Air Act, you are costing people.

Isn't there a cost to hospital admissions?

So when you work on cleaning up the air, do you take into account the benefits that people have, and does the law require you to do that?

We don't diminish, we withhold it during a period of a government shutdown or a failure to raise the debt ceiling. There is a reason we do it. It is very rare we have a government shutdown, but, in my view, and in the view of the…

In your report of March 2011, was this report required by Congress?

But tough times call for intelligent decisionmaking and wisdom, not reckless cuts that will do more harm than good.

Everybody supports the EPA doing its job.

This legislation, as drafted, does not increase or decrease the salary. If you withhold it, and if the President felt that was a violation, he himself would have to challenge it.

Don't let people mischaracterize what you are doing. Go forward, do your job, protect our health. History will judge you well.

In the evaluation of the Keystone XL project, will the State Department assess how increasing U.S. imports of crude oil derived from Canadian tar sands will increase the carbon intensity of the U.

the mission that EPA undertakes every day is critically important to our children, to our families and to our communities.

You need to follow the law. I hope we will support you.

We did check this with legal counsel, and they told us that the legislation, as drafted, does not increase or diminish the annual salary of the President. It withholds pay during a shutdown or failure to raise the debt ceiling. There are…