I am pleased to offer my support for Ms. Edith Ramirez, nominee for Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission.

We need 20 security forces for every 1,000 Afghans.

He stated that he rejected goals that were beyond what can be achieved at a reasonable cost and what we need to achieve to secure our interests.

I am concerned that there is an alarming disconnect between the more targeted vision President Obama articulated in his speech regarding U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.

This is clearly hundreds of thousands of forces short of the minimum articulated in your manual.

I appreciate very much the opportunity to be able to appear before the committee today.

Americans also have a right to expect that their children are safe from drinking water pollution in their schools.

I expect to see some enforcement and I hope that you will--I do not mean to put you on the spot to identify systems.

This bipartisan legislation aims to address the obstacles that many of our towns and cities are facing, mainly difficulty in financing drinking water infrastructure.

What do I have to do to make sure that you can get in there and clean up that water?

Drinking water infrastructure needs $334 billion over 20 years, and most of it is because of repair or replacement.

I need a lot more specificity from you. I do not--I am not confident that we are now ready to go.

When fish become intersex, that means having characteristics of both male and female, it is a clear indication that there are too many hormones or estrogen-laden drugs that are being put into our water system.

If we can keep the water from being contaminated in the first place, it is far better than having to put all kinds of costly repairs into place.

OK, if you could confer with Administrator Jackson and get back to us, in writing. That would be very good.

Thank you very much, Senator.

Because we worry, all of us, about our smaller systems, because they are the ones that just do not have the ability to move forward.

I think chemical reform is also a very important part of this work.

Under new leadership, the EPA has decided to place comprehensive reports and data on water quality enforcement in all 50 States on the Internet.

What are you doing now, in light of the past 8 years where not much was done as far as I can tell?

I have long called for EPA to use the best available science to make a decision on regulating perchlorate.

I have always believed that the first responsibility of government is to protect our citizens.

The last Administration refused to set a drinking water standard for perchlorate despite strong scientific evidence.

So, just to go over that again. I asked you what more can EPA do to help small water systems, and you are saying get them the funding they need.

We know from reading these news stories, and they do seem to be very well documented, that the reports were made, but nothing has happened.