I know of no dissenting voices.

I believe it is essential that we identify ways to give the Government the tools it needs to unwind troubled, systemically important institutions in an orderly way.

We cannot afford to replace Citi-sized financial institutions with Citi-sized regulators.

I regret we do not now. It would have been a very different situation, in many ways, if we had such.

This is truly an American patriot who has taken his life experience, his family's experience, and then applied those experiences to the public service of our Nation.

I am here because I believe this is a unique opportunity for us to welcome and to celebrate someone who is willing to help serve our Nation at a critical moment.

This is an extraordinary opportunity. I think we ought to be deeply grateful to the President and to Harold Koh for his willingness to take this on.

This is something that is critical to the role of legal adviser to the State Department--to be welcoming of the diversity of thought that ought to be brought to the table.

To respect that kind of thought and that willingness to listen to others and to be a part of shaping that debate is something all of us embrace.

It will be essential to provide periodic reports to Congress, as recommended by Senator Dodd.

The Committee will come to order, and let me apologize to our witnesses and colleagues for the slight delay.

I want to thank all of you for being here today.

I'm pleased we are in New Haven this morning to talk with so many of Connecticut's transportation leaders.

Richard Shelby, my colleague on the Committee, cares about these issues in his communities as well.

Senator Bob Bennett of Utah is deeply entrenched with transit issues in Salt Lake.

I want to recognize who is in the audience.

I think that could help structure more of these and make this not so--I think the ingredients are there.

the idea of an infrastructure bank idea, which the mayor of New York, the Governor of California, the Governor of Pennsylvania, and, in fact, the President had spoke about it during the campaign

I think we've arrived at a time when we need to recognize, as well, how important the role of transit can play.

This is not an anti-highway hearing, by the way. It's obviously critically important as well.

I want to get us as close to that mode neutral where States and communities can start making decisions based on what their needs are.

He must have known we were having the hearing here this morning.

I want to prioritize. We're not going to have--it's going to be a battle already because of the deficits.

The Congress is charged with responsibility of coming up with a new version of that proposal.

the infrastructure bank idea of leveraging private dollars with public monies, which has been done in Vancouver, Canada, and other places, is one of the more creative ideas