It is unreasonable and irresponsible to make these deep cuts in programs like investments in research and development.

If even a fraction of this money returned to the State, we would not have a fiscal crisis in Illinois at this moment.

Thank you, Mr. Larsen.

It is remarkable, in that context, that we are not in a great depression today.

It is hard to actually look at this and conclude that there was not a positive benefit.

I personally, from a political point of view, am very skeptical that unless we have an automatic punchbowl retractor, it is going to be very difficult to hold back.

When people ask me to reduce to a single number where are we and where our economy is, I go to household net worth.

Household net worth has rebounded by more than 10 times that.

6 years ago today, President Ronald Reagan lay in State in the Capitol Rotunda, a high and fitting honor for this consequential President and native son of my congressional district. Today, I bring to the floor a far more modest tribute, a…

I rise in support of an amendment which would direct the Secretary of Defense to commission an independent study assessing the optimal balance of manned versus unmanned aircraft, as well as whether our military is capable of defending…

This year for the first time in history, the Air Force trained more UAV pilots than traditional fighter pilots. However, our fleet of unmanned aircraft has expanded, and we have also maintained and continued to build a large force of…

I am here on the floor today to speak in support of H. Res. 862 honoring the Illinois Math and Science Academy for its receipt of the Intel Corporation's Star Innovator Award. The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy is a school of…

There's no transparency here. I mean, Obama promised that we're going to have time to look at everything that goes through Congress.

The title of this hearing involves monetary policy, but the subject seems to be the overall health of the economy.

there is not a lot of action that is necessary from our point of view there.

the systemic risk probably is not there if that is what we are worried about.

the most interesting number to me there is that credit default swaps are 7 percent, which is interesting considering the effect that they have had on our economy.

I think we should all show some humility in our current situation and look laterally at countries that have systems that did not get into this mess.

I find this business of having assigning these ratings, which are essentially names for numbers, just absolutely bizarre.

I would like to thank Chairman Frank for holding this important hearing.

This legislation could not come at a more necessary time for the people of Illinois who are struggling mightily with deteriorating roads and little support from their government to maintain them.

For far too long, the residents of my district have suffered under a failed State government which for seven years has been unable to pass a capital bill.

As a scientist and a new Member of Congress, one of my frustrations is the tendency of politicians to consider all issues in terms of how they play out in the next election rather than evaluating what is in the long-term best interest of…

I therefore offer my suggestion to the committee that we create and formalize a new system of scoring and tracking the long-term success and budgetary impact of our investments.

It is a vast improvement over the budgets in recent years, and I hope to support it in its final form.