Bill Nelson

As I said, I think we are going to have a problem this fall.

You are absolutely correct.

The good news is that existing circumstances, the deficit will be reduced over a ten-year period to somewhere between $3.6 and $3.8 trillion.

In the opinion of this Senator, there is good news and bad news.

I want to thank you for that, because what you did was, you smoothed it out so that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and I could bring unanimity.

The impact of the sequester is a $598 million cut for IDEA Part B, children with special needs; a $725 million cut for poor children, Title I.

I would hope that as we get our space program cranked up again... that might bring a lot more young people into these fields of high technology.

Commanding officers are responsible for establishing a command climate in which sexual assault allegations are properly managed

It seems to me that from your office you ought to suggest that some heads ought to roll so that people know that we mean business when we set a contract and set some deadlines.

Does this suggest incompetence on the part of the contractor?

Financial incentives of both benefits and penalties have worked in the past.

No doubt you are all the more frustrated in realizing that so many of the veterans retire, and where do they come? They come to my State of Florida.

I am at a loss to understand why the Administration is proposing to cut STEM funds in half and to reorganize it through the Department of Education, National Science Foundation, and the Smithsonian.

I am a believer that at some point you should just bring in the FBI and the Department of Justice and treat a rape like a rape and throw people in prison.

50 percent of the victims say that if they report the assault, they do not think it does any good.

I must say that I am concerned, because I do not see a lot of give.

Do you see any potential change of the sequester in the present fiscal year until September the 30th?

Maybe that suggests that we ought to rethink how we contract.

I would just point out for your folks sitting behind you that the sales tax deduction expires at the end of this year.

But, you know, from revenue versus cuts, you have just one to three, one part revenue to three parts of cuts.

Mr. Secretary, how do you think the U.S. should respond to this dangerous and unprecedented action by North Korea?

Under sequestration, would this move go forward?

Drug interdiction on the high seas accounts for the removal of 200 tons of cocaine from the U.S. supply, which is 10 times that which is removed by U.S. law enforcement.

Sequester certainly wouldn't put you into a better position in order to respond, would it?

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. You've been an old and dear friend and you have served your country exceptionally well.