On behalf of my constituents, I ask that you take this opportunity to act upon the urgent need to save Medicare.

We must embrace a budget that provides a proven pathway out of poverty to prosperity for all Americans.

I urge every member of the Budget Committee to give a full and fair consideration of the Congressional Progressive Caucus budget alternative.

I would urge the Committee to get the General Accounting Office to do a study of some of the problems that exist with this practice.

Unfortunately, what is non-existent is the will on the part of this administration to utilize the oil and natural gas we have.

Expanding domestic energy production will create jobs both with the firms drilling for oil and gas and those that support these activities.

I believe we will hear today there are things the government can do to address all of these concerns in party by producing more energy at home.

Economic opportunity for all is a value that defines the United States, and it is the responsibility of this Congress to make sure that our guiding principles are turned into a reality for all Americans.

I support reducing the deficit. But cutting non-defense discretionary spending alone will not solve the problem.

I don't think we are going to go down this heavy conventional footprint, nation-building path again.

I will make sure that we don't go down that road again.

It should not be the policy of OSM to make production of this affordable and readily accessible energy become even more restricted.

The proposed budget and legislative proposals, including the new stream-buffer rule, will reduce access to affordable energy for many Americans by harming the ability of the coal industry to be a major part of our energy production.

I think that it seems to be more about defending the status quo than defending the country.

I am concerned the President's budget proposal is focused on executing onerous federal regulations under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act and forcing states to increase fee collection directly from mining companies to make up…

During a time when all energy production should be encouraged the President's budget and policy direction seems to be clearly pointed at greatly reducing our coal capacity.

We must rely on domestic supply of coal in order to reduce our dependence on foreign oil but how will increasing fees on coal production increase our supply?

I want to thank Chairman Lamborn and the Sub-Committee for holding this hearing today.

Could it be argued that, now, they have a lot of the same pressures that we have, where, you know, are they going to maintain a welfare state or are they going to cut their defense budget.

What functions could be provided for in the Guard and Reserve? So instead of reducing the size of the Guard and Reserve we ought to be expanding the size of the Guard and Reserve and maintaining it so that we don't have to reduce our…

I really think that if anything comes out of these hearings, that the chain of custody for those who have fallen in battle, that chain of custody for the remains of those who have fallen must be by uniformed military personnel only.

only U.S.--uniformed U.S. military personnel handle the remains of those who have fallen in battle.

I feel that this also fits in that vision by doing away with the defined benefit pension program.

What I do know is this, I was a cop for 38 years, and for the last 10 of those years, I was sheriff of Hernando County, Florida.

We in the Congress are going to have to exercise extraordinary leadership in navigating this country out of our debt crisis.