it is not the minority's right to get nominees to agree with them in advance.

They ought to get a vote, and I think they ought to get our support.

I rise to introduce the New Columbia Admissions Act, a bill that seeks to end a longstanding injustice and give full voting representation to the residents of the District of Columbia. More than 600,000 Americans live in Washington, D.C…

I rise for the purpose of entering into a colloquy with Senator Reed, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, regarding funding for the Department of the Interior included in the disaster assistance…

I thank the Senator. Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, as we debate the Hurricane Sandy Supplemental bill this week, it is critical that we ensure taxpayer dollars go to help those impacted by this devastating storm and not toward spending…

this week, the Senate passed the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012, The IPERA Improvement Act or H.R. 4053. Earlier this month, the House passed the same legislation, which builds on the Improper Payments…

About the prison system?

we could find out who to contact in Utah, learning about it, is it replicable, is it exportable.

we know that the States are the laboratories of democracy.

I would urge you to think about that some more beyond this, and my hope is your staff here will be thinking about that.

We operate under two imperatives--well, more than two, but at least two that I want to focus on. One of those is a moral imperative, and the moral imperative is to look out for the least of these.

As an old Governor, I can tell you the States are getting killed on Medicaid costs. It is just sucking away money from K-12.

we are still going to have huge budget deficits. Huge budget deficits.

there are all kinds of market forces that are really encouraging States to look for better results.

Whatever agreement is struck by the President and the Speaker--my hope is that they will reach an agreement--it is going to involve trying to find ways to get better health care results for less money or better health care results for the…

I think one of the things that is important is that it is an early-stage technology and it does need some help to get us back into a leadership position.

One of the provisions that Senator Snowe and I have worked on is an investment tax credit for offshore wind.

I have been told by industry that energy efficiency projects have a huge up-front cost, despite the long-range energy savings.

I actually think that is a pretty good approach. We will see if it passes muster in whatever we put together next year.

Aside from cloning Senator Bingaman, what other advice would you have for us as we look to the future?

I sometimes say that the cleanest, most affordable form of energy is the energy we never use.

Utilities are much more focused on energy production rather than finding energy savings, for obvious reasons.

All right. Good. Thank you.

There is a huge potential for energy savings in this sector.

I would add to that this is a commitment to civility that Senator Coons and I share, and it is also one that our Congressman John Carney certainly does, and winning in races before him, Mike Castle. If you think of all of those--Castle…