One of the qualities I always looked for in nominating people to the bench was judicial temperament.

I will miss Orrin Hatch for many reasons. I love sitting with him on the floor and just talking.

When I first arrived in the United States Senate on January 3, 2001, one of the people I went and met with was Orrin Hatch.

How does your faith guide you in this work?

the Presiding Officer knows I spent a little time in the Navy. So did my father. My father enlisted in the Navy right before World War II broke out. He was not 18. George Herbert Walker Bush, I think on his 18th birthday, just out of high…

I am trying to think of a really quick comeback to this, but my memory fails me. I have a pretty good one from John Kennedy, who once said to never negotiate out of fear but always be ready to negotiate. That is the preference--to never…

I don't get to object to unanimous consent requests every day. I think I will do that in this case just to see what it feels like, but do it in the spirit of trying to get something done. The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is an objection to the…

Good. All right. Thank you. Democracy. What did Churchill say? Democracy is the worst form of government devised by way of man, except for all the rest. He also said that you can always count on America to do the right thing in the end…

Thank you, Mr. President. In the wake of 9/11, Congress took a fresh--I want us to walk back in time a little bit to how we actually got here today. In the wake of 9/11, Congress took a fresh look at some of our Nation's vulnerabilities…

I welcome your words. I used to be a House Member. I think we need to respect their views as well. Obviously, they have some views that need to be taken into account. This is not something I have discussed with the Secretary. I don't even…

I was prepared to ask the Senator to modify his request to the Senate and, instead, take up a bill that I have introduced that basically reflects what the Secretary has done and what the House has done and is at the desk. Help me on this…

I was happy to welcome back our colleagues this week from Thanksgiving and come back to work. A lot of stuff needs to be done and have some fresh energy and maybe some fresh ideas, but I hope my colleagues were able to get home for…

A majority of Senators signaled their intent to vote against Dr. Dourson's confirmation because they felt that he lacked the objectivity and credibility to be EPA's top chemical safety regulator.

The responsiveness of EPA to our inquiries or oversight letters has been better than it was but not good.

We were so excited we found consensus. A bunch of us in this room, Cory Booker, Ed Markey and others on both sides of the aisle, worked very hard to get this done.

Having said all that, none of that will matter if you cannot or do not make real changes in the agency's chemical safety efforts.

Unfortunately, Trump's EPA is not implementing that part of the law well, at least in our estimation.

What I hope to better understand today, as we consider her nomination, is whether she represents a change in personnel or a change in direction, an important point.

I want to ask unanimous consent to submit for the record several reports discussing the Trump Administration's continued failure to properly implement the bipartisan Toxic Substances Control Act.

I have long believed that transportation infrastructure is an area where our Committee can again lead in a bipartisan fashion.

This was terrific. You all did a great job, and I just want to applaud you and thank you for being here.

I believe that next year we are going to have another opportunity to work on legislation that improves the state of our Nation's infrastructure.

I was looking forward to this hearing when I saw who was going to testify, and you have exceeded my expectations.

Lincoln used to say the role of Government is to do for the people what they cannot do for themselves.

I thank the Senator from South Dakota. I do agree. Today, we are one step closer to getting this strong bipartisan compromise on vessel discharge legislation signed into law. This bill protects waters across our country from the…