We are operating both high-speed critical Amtrak service, critical commuter service, and we are running on a system that is now a hundred years old.

That's high-speed. Is that high-speed?

the costs are prohibitive in many ways, and we are already lowering deficits in the Highway Trust Fund

It is with great pleasure that I introduce Gina McCarthy, who has been nominated to the important post of Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency.

I want to congratulate President Obama for nominating such a remarkable, qualified, energetic and passionate individual

Well, it is huge. You go from something that was $100 and it moves to $5 or $10 more, that is value.

Throughout much of the country, the strength of the Afghan central government is tenuous at best, and the Taliban and al Qaeda continue to operate with impunity in large expanses of Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.

I think one of the important things that Congress can look at, and I hope you will look at in the future, is to enact a shareholder voting rights and proxy access act.

One of the things we learned, going back in Richard Breeden's day, is that you cannot have the regulator in a sense also be responsible for the resolution of these matters.

I for one feel very strongly, at least at this point, that the SEC and the function of the SEC ought not to be so incorporated in something that it ends up diminishing the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission in investor…

Well, again, it is certainly worthy of quick examination because this is the kind of thing that, again, in a week or two from now we will pick up our newspapers and discover that this has gone on and no one has paid attention to it.

I fear very much that if you are not extremely helpful, we will have more 'too big to fail,' more moral hazard, and more bailouts, and that is not a healthy path for us to move forward.

It has been nearly 8 years since the U.S. began military operations in Afghanistan. It should come as no surprise to anyone that, while coalition and Afghan forces have made gains against Taliban and al Qaeda operations, these gains have…

The danger of doing that seems to me to only complicate the problem to some degree.

That is not going to happen.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this important hearing today. General Eikenberry, congratulations on your nomination, and thank you for your tremendous service to our Nation.

There is a lot of interest in Chairman Schapiro's testimony today.

The purpose of the surge was to provide breathing space for Iraqis to engage in political reconciliation.

What we need is a comprehensive strategy that will enable us to quickly withdraw American forces in the most responsible way possible.

We need to more vigorously and dynamically engage with the Iraqi Government to help them build the capacity and the skills to deliver for the needs of their own people.

The obvious question that others have raised is, at some point we're going to have to stop funding these Awakening Councils, and the danger, obviously, that these very groups that now are part of the solution, could become part of the…

the return to sectarian violence is the great fear, here, and if you end up short-changing the funding, the very organizations that have been a part of the solution, here, become part of an ongoing problem.

I would hope that the administration's Iraq strategy would put the Iraqi people front and center.

It would be a mistake to paint every financial institution with the same broad brush.

We are going to again explore ways in which we will try to modernize and improve bank regulation and supervision.