You obviously are in charge of a very important department, in my opinion.

we can certainly arrange some of those meetings between all of us and so we can get together and knock heads and find out where we are.

Mid-April is approaching relatively rapidly. Have you made a decision yet on what you are going to do in operating--what you said earlier.

My job is not only to do the appropriation for the energy and water appropriations bill, but it is to help make you the most successful secretary of the Department of Energy that we have had.

Have you had discussions with USEC on what they will do, because, if they are, in fact, as you know, in mid-April going to be running out of money, they are going to have to send out layoff notices to their employees.

The administration stands ready to work with Congress and TVA stakeholders to explore options to end Federal ties to TVA, including alternatives such as the transfer of ownership to state or local stakeholders.

I have never had a clear vision of where we want to go with this department and why we do some of that neat stuff.

Your department's credibility has been sorely damaged by proposing cost plans which are rapidly exceeded.

I am not an enemy of renewable energy. Heck, the city of Boise in my district operates the largest direct use geothermal system in the country, but coal and nuclear plants are being shut down across the country.

So I look forward to working with you over the coming months as we put together this budget and try to address both the concerns that you have and the concerns that have been expressed here by members of this committee and try to address…

Well, I need to thank you for the work that you did up around Ketchum this last summer.

Do you still believe there is a national security need for domestic enrichment?

There is going to be some big, big kickbacks on this; I got a feeling.

I will guarantee--well, I won't guarantee anything, but I will strongly suggest there won't be an appropriation bill that passes that doesn't have a restriction on funding of this rule in it for both the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA.

The infrastructure needs in this country are the biggest problems that we face.

I do not see us, frankly, building an awful lot of new dams in the West for increased storage.

902 is the force of law with Congress, saying that we waive the law about the dollar. Is that not correct?

The issue of work plans brings up a second concern I have with the lack of information to support the fiscal year 2014 work plan that has been submitted to date.

Did anybody in either the EPA or the Army Corps sit back and say, you know, we are testifying before Congress tomorrow and the next day. Do you really think this is the time we ought to be issuing this rule?

This rule is kind of stunning to me that they came out.

It seems to be apparent that Congress and the Administration have very different visions for the Corps.

Well, I would advise you to do something like that, because it would be helpful to this Committee--because then we know--we are also looking at five years on, if we start this project--because a lot of the projects that you guys do are not…

This is seen as a huge overreach by the Federal Government.

We don't like the fact that there is a 17 percent cut in the budget, take care of Asian Carp, nav waters and Savannah Harbor, and you are set to go.

Those actions, to me, clearly violate the intent, if not the letter, of what Congress intended.