There was a huge rally in deep southern Illinois over the weekend to protect and save coalmining jobs in the country.

Let's just take a look at it, write an authorization, get bipartisan support, clean it up.

I do agree, I find the work of the GAO very helpful to us as public policy folks.

We, as authorizers, also really dislike public policy created through spending authority versus authorization.

Just that analysis says we need to clean this up.

It is my pleasure to honor a dedicated public servant--Congressman Jerry Costello. Jerry has served the people of Illinois as a law enforcement officer, as St. Clair County Board Chairman, and as a member of this House. As you know, Jerry…

If you can't get the small things right, how do people trust you to do the big things in this issue?

It is always a memorable time and usually very short because on September 11th, that it was a short event in which we gathered.

Well, I think it was last year when I had an inspector just come visit and kind of do an open-office-hour type of thing.

Could we get a better return on investment and a more timely process getting it right before it deployed?

I guess the big point is, if you can't do the small things, how can the country, the localities, the taxpayers, the public interest groups, expect us to do the big things?

So DHS is in the high-risk; CFATS is probably their number-one problem of concern.

I understand that GAO has placed DHS on its high-risk list due to management challenges facing the Department.

We need to fix TWIC and use it as the standard card.

How do you best honor those on a day like today than to address the threats of today?

State sovereignty, national unity.

And the point being, two similar facilities--one in downtown Manhattan; one outside Olney, Illinois--two very different risk portfolios.

Last but not least, what I've done on a weekly basis is raise the issue of concern and address the high-level nuclear waste storage site in issue in this country. And so I really-- since we're very close to the end of the session, very few…

I appreciate the time yielded to me to really cover a couple different issues and areas that have been pending either in the District or in our Nation--or even internationally--and using this opportunity to place into the Record and also…

I will just read the Senator's quote that's quoted in the story: Reid said he was assured by Pete Rouse, a senior White House official, that Magwood would also oppose Yucca. ``I met with him because Pete Rouse asked me to meet with him. I…

I have come down to the floor just to remind my colleagues and you, Mr. Speaker, that if you go to jobs.gop.gov you will see a list of 25 bills that have been passed in this Chamber to do a couple of things: to boost competitiveness in the…

We are now going through a possible timber harvest, and its nonnative species. So it should be a win-win.

Even in my own district in southern Illinois, where is my oil and gas exploration and recovery going on?

There is no reason for us to continue to have a negative balance of trade and continue to be a borrowing country when we could have a positive balance of trade and we could turn into a lending company if we released our energy companies to…

The fracking boom is coming to southern Illinois, and there are a lot of exciting opportunities there, especially for rural, small-town America.