Senator Boozman who is my wing man, is a co-chair of the Recycling Caucus in the Senate.

In adversity, lies opportunity.

For years, I have been working with a number of our colleagues to address the root causes and unfolding effects of what I believe is one of the biggest challenges of our generation, and that is, climate change.

Having that kind of analytic rigor behind our decisionmaking is critically important because it then allows us to invest strategically.

the increase in frequency and intensity of those extreme weather events are costing our country a boatload of money--not just the cost that is measured in lives that are impacted but in economic and financial costs as well.

Dramatic cuts to the Highway program is not something I am going to let happen.

if you do prepare, that ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure.

There is a good deal that we can agree on and work together on, and that is what the people of America sent us here to do.

Senator Vitter also strongly supports this.

Today's hearing is not intended to hash out climate science. That is not what we are trying to do. Instead, it is about trying to find common ground.

Raising revenue for the Highway Trust Fund should be our first focus.

I believe we cannot afford to ignore the impacts these weather events are having on Federal spending.

Focus on the 80 percent where we agree, set aside the 20 percent where we do not agree.

We see it time and time again. The communities that are not as prepared do not do nearly as well.

We have actually probably done a better job preparing than almost any other State because of the way we are looking at it.

We need to look at ways we can have an adequate source. I would hope we would be open to things such as using carbon fees or other ways to get the revenue necessary.

Let us just focus on the 80 percent that we agree on, and we will set the other 20 percent aside until another day.

You can't tell me that maintaining unused or vacant Federal properties at $25 million per year is more important than reauthorizing the highway bill.

I can tell you, they are critically important to our national economy, to the Federal Government because of the Federal work force, but also critically important for all of our communities.

Senator Inhofe has been one of the great leaders on moving forward on infrastructure.

It is easy in a political environment to move toward the thing that gets the most attention, but it is not always necessarily the thing that has the best economic imperative.

the damage from a storm still fresh in many of our minds, Superstorm Sandy, which impacted, again, my home State of Delaware and many of our neighbors, is estimated to have cost our economy $75 billion.

the Chinese New Year began, as you probably know, just a couple days ago. I do not know a lot of words in Chinese, but among the words I have learned is how to say ``Happy New Year.'' It is a new year in China. It is a new year for Chinese…

I just want to say I am going to be in and out of the hearing but I want to say when I leave, please do not think I am not interested.

We applaud and fully support the introduction of the Data Security Act of 2014 (S. 1927) by Senators Tom Carper and Roy Blunt.