For them to be presented with a 30 percent cut to the Department of Agriculture is an insult.

Who gave you that task?

I want to thank you for holding an excellent hearing. This is a great panel, and timely, I think, because of the budget that has been submitted.

I wonder if you could tell the panel a little bit about the role these research field stations play and how they work to provide useful information to local growers and producers.

There is about a $3 billion savings that the Congressional Budget Office has estimated could happen if essentially Congress were simply to say to the company, 'You have to make that available.'

I think only the Congress can essentially say that.

My hope is that in the Senate, we will not do this in a partisan way, but we will come together as Democrats and Republicans and address the health-care system in a way that is actually believable to the people whom I represent.

if you set out to design a bill less responsive to the critics of Obamacare in Colorado, to Republican critics of Obamacare, you could not write a bill less responsive than the House bill.

What is my State supposed to do?

I do not want to have to walk back through the list. I mean, I think we have agreed that that is a very small percentage.

And more than 40 percent of our Medicaid spending supports the disabled and seniors, many of whom are in long-term care facilities.