Eleanor Holmes Norton

I think that although we didn't have tremendous impacts here in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area from Hurricane Sandy, there were some.

It makes me a stronger and better advocate for the people in the worst-affected areas.

This event covered 24 States and saw a confluence of climate I don't think we have ever seen before.

I especially thank you for holding this very timely hearing on yet another unprecedented storm in our country.

I thank the delegate for those very important remarks and certainly join her in those remarks. We have another delegate who has come to the floor. I am pleased to invite Congressman Faleomavaega of American Samoa to step forward at this…

Your decision to leave your service here in the Senate leaves for the District of Columbia a hole in our heart and a big hole in the chair where you sit.

It is nonsense not to compete any sizable contract, in the same way that anybody would go to more than one contractor.

A business often doesn't give retainers anymore. It essentially makes law firms compete for their business.

I introduced it in good faith. I believe there should be hearings before we decide what to do.

What I object to is preemptory action by one Member of Congress to take over the whole Airports Authority when neither this committee nor any other committee has any information about why this was done this way.

I would have absolutely no objection to looking at that 1986 act.

I certainly appreciate that approach. I am trying to go to efficiency in Government.

I couldn't for the life of me understand if, considering that this is Federal land, why the Federal Acquisition Regulations already there shouldn't simply apply.

I do want to say for the record that what Mr. Connolly proposes is essentially a takeover of the Airports Authority by the State of Virginia.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which we call MWAA, is a so-called independent public body, but it was created by Congress.

If compromise is to be the way of the lame duck and the way of the 113th Congress, I certainly hope we won't open that issue.

I certainly agree with his analysis of the issues and the defects in the present regulations, such as they are, at MWAA.

I agree with Mr. Chaffetz that perhaps had there been more resources we might have had a different result. But I must note that while the Republican budget increases the budget of the Defense Department, it slashes the budget that would…

I want to make sure I clarify one of the most controversial parts of this matter...

This Committee and, I believe, the Senate will have an opportunity to confirm an unusually outstanding candidate for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

It is a source of great embarrassment to me as an American that our country is not just a little behind, not just somewhat behind, but not even out of the starting gate when it comes to train travel in the world today.

We have never had a vision for train travel for the decades.

The fact that your trains are more and more crowded speaks to the service your employees are providing, and it speaks to the need for more and more trains.

I found your summary and your vivid explanation important, and you come, of course, from the District of Columbia.

I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for convening today's hearing on EPA's recently released integrated planning framework to work with the States toward providing reasonable flexibility and relief to jurisdictions like my own district, the…