Mr. President, I oppose the motion to table the motion to concur in the House amendment to S. 627, the Budget Control Act of 2011. Although I do not support the bill as written, I believe that the Senate should proceed to it in an effort…

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be recognized to speak for up to 15 minutes. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

I was witness a few minutes ago to an interesting and informative exchange and wanted to comment on that briefly. Both the leader and the senior Senator from New York had some comments that I think are important in the context of what is…

there's this real concern in the Gulf region that, the spill happened, but that the full impact of it may not be known for years

A spill in one of those sites would be even more catastrophic than what happened, based on the currents.

I think there is something in here that. I've had, I was just in Portland with other counties, and there's a lot of comments that, again, in some places it worked well, and that is when they engaged the locals.

I'd like to figure out a way where we can create some leverage there, because a spill in one of these places would be deeply disastrous as much as anywhere else.

If permitting moves forward at a reasonable pace for projects in the Gulf, then we can put 190,000 more people to work.

I think Repsol's one of the companies. There are some other companies we don't know a lot about that are talking about being a part of it.

Mr. President, I stand here today having spent some time over the last few days thinking about this dispute regarding the debt limit, as we are hearing from our constituents across the country who are looking at Washington and asking: What…

Madam President, had I been present to vote on the motion to proceed to consider S. 1323, I would have voted no. There is broad consensus in Washington that a ``balanced approach'' between spending cuts, controls, and increased revenue is…