Michael Bennet

What are the implications for your timelines with respect to eligibility, signup, and all the rest if you don't get this Web site fully functional by the end of the month or the end of--yes, this month?

That ought to be job No. 1, to figure out whether people--put the politics aside--whether people sitting at their kitchen table can decide and evaluate for themselves whether this is a better deal or not for them.

No. I think it is very clear, and Ronald Reagan shared this view--you quoted him earlier--that this would just make matters worse.

People in Colorado, they are sick and tired of a lot of things about Washington, but what they are mostly sick and tired of is our managing by crisis

I say through the Chair, does the Senator think that any county executive or mayor or local official in the Senator's State wouldn't be run out of town if they threatened the credit rating of their community for politics?

We need a wholesale conversation about every factor that touches on affordability: tuition rates, loans, grants, and tax incentives, to name a few.

The goal of HEA reauthorization must be to design a system of higher education that is focused, above all else, on ensuring student success.

But America is falling behind the rest of the world in the percentage of our population with a college degree.

I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to improve and reauthorize the Higher Education Act.

Today, we live in a global economy where a college degree has increasingly become a prerequisite for success.

Students should not have to leverage their futures with mountains of debt in order to pursue the American dream.

Fixing our system of higher education will be hard work.

The country's future competiveness and the strength of our economy depend upon the skills and education of the next generation.

College must be made more affordable.

Ron has a long career in public service in Colorado. He has built, he has earned a reputation as a good listener who can broker difficult compromises among stakeholders who might not necessarily see eye to eye on a given issue.

Our industry faces many challenges that require a careful balancing of interests and thoughtful solutions. Constructive approaches that benefit both customers and the environment should be applauded rather than chastised.

We're going to need the help of the members of this committee to rebuild. We look forward to working with you on that.

Over Republican and Democratic administrations FERC has judiciously exercised the dual authority Congress has given it. FERC has a long nonpartisan tradition. Ron Binz fits squarely within that tradition.

Mr. Binz has an impressive 34 year career in energy policy. If the Senate confirms him we think he will be a fair and impartial judge and further the public interest within the FERC's authority.

I hope the Committee will recognize these worthy goals, see fit to promptly and favorably move this bill forward in the process.

I think the Bennet-Isakson approach would do, is to look at something very simple, which is people going at this important moment to buy a home and going to get a mortgage, to get that energy savings cranked into the mortgage underwriting.

What I hope people will remember when they hear people say, the government should not pick winners and losers, is that we already have a tax code that is full of that, full of decisions that have been made about winners and losers.

I first wish to say how wonderful it has been to serve with you in the Senate. As you take your leave to go back to the real world in Massachusetts, we all wish you well and we thank you for everything you have done while you have been…

With that, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coons). The clerk will call the roll. The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

Later today, Senator Grassley and I... are going to introduce legislation to open up the Medicare database.