Michael Bennet

The only thing I care about is that the deals that are made are kept, and that the quality of the education be high, whether it's public or whether it's private.

I believe the abiding concern of everybody on this committee and every committee of this Congress ought to be that we are at risk of being the first generation of Americans to leave less opportunity, not more, to our kids and our grandkids.

I think going forward both for K-12 and higher ed, online is going to be a very important part of the delivery system, a hugely important part.

I think that increasing affordable access to college, especially for low-income students, is one of the most critical investments we can make in our future, and we need to do it.

Much of the data we have regarding health risks of oil spills likely understates the risks for a large spill.

Let me just--may I ask one more question, Mr. Chairman? Thank you.

I wish I could, but I think, as Dr. Miller pointed out, when you look at the world's literature, you have, maybe, less than 40 articles that you could possibly turn to.

Part of workplace culture is a culture where workers do not have to fear their participation in the health and safety programs.

One of the things that troubles me the most about the Transocean situation are the allegations that safety concerns from workers were ignored or brushed under the rug.

This tragedy is a stark reminder that energy development, without proper safety and environmental precautions, can be a very dangerous business.

The dangerous circumstances that led to this explosion put workers' lives at risk. And this is simply unacceptable.

I realize that OSHA has no formal oversight role with regard to offshore drilling.

The issue of worker safety and preventing tragedies on the job is at the forefront of all of our minds after the recent Gulf and coal mine tragedies.

I'm outraged that, at this point, in the year 2010, 40 years after the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed, workers still have to be afraid to exercise their rights under the law.

It's extremely important, particularly in refineries, and anywhere where you're dealing with process management problems, for workers to feel protected.

The law doesn't really work unless workers are involved.

I think the question maybe is a slightly different one because it is sort of a balance between how prescriptive we want to be from here versus how much flexibility we want to give people to make the right decisions.

So the higher the poverty, the better quality of the program, the more the subsidy that you got, which I thought was a clever way of trying to deal with the quality issue as well as the issue of access.

I hope that we can somehow reach into our taxpayer dollars that go through you to find ways to have them better coordinated.

I think it is echoed in Senator Murray's statement about what Washington State is doing to integrate at the State level.

We need to incent that kind of integration at all levels.

I would draw the committee's attention to a number of letters I brought with me today that support the overall effort.

I want to extend a special thanks to you, as you said, for joining me as an original co-sponsor on this important piece of legislation.

I'm proud to call you 'Mr. Chairman.'

It's my hope that we can work collaboratively to improve and strengthen the legislation.