Tom Carper

I think in your case in New York, what has happened under your leadership could be an example for the rest of us.

Thank you for that excellent testimony.

We advocate strengthening enrollment standards and making participation in the Federal health care programs a privilege, not a right.

Would you say that number again, that last sentence.

Thank you so much. Ms. Taylor, you are recognized.

I think it will take such a sustained commitment for there to be real progress in this area.

Those three estimates, as Senator Carper pointed out, are roughly about 50 percent of that $72 billion in improper payments.

We need to work even harder.

There has to be a price to pay for that, not just paying back the money, but a greater price than that.

I think one of the better initiatives that came out of the George W. Bush Administration was the idea of the Improper Payments Information Act.

Unfortunately, until we put market discipline into the health care system, waste and fraud will continue to be a reality in Medicare and Medicaid.

The idea of post-payment review and recovery audits are all sensible approaches, but one of the things that we are not doing is payment reform.

All too often, however, agencies are failing to meet their responsibilities in this regard.

Getting our budget deficit under control is not going to be an easy task. It will require tough choices and discipline.

The Byrne-JAG assistance grant should be funded at full strength of $1.1 billion as originally recommended by the Senate.

If we are to have a robust national drug control strategy, we must not cut the resources available for these efforts.

They have a need to establish Federal leadership on climate.

I hope it is going to be a cap and trade bill, I hope it is a bipartisan bill at the end of the day.

In Delaware, we think of Connecticut as a big State.

There is a lot of legislation we want to move while I have this gavel in my hands.

We need leaders like you who can build alliances.

You will need to implement vital air toxic risk rules that have been shelved or unfunded by the last Administration.

I hope that you will approach pending decisions on greenhouse gas regulation with great care.

If the policies pursued are not pursued with great care and restraint, this great machine we call America will grind to a halt.

In too many respects, opportunities for progress on clean air have largely been squandered over the last 8 years.