Mary Landrieu

Thank you, Attorney General Holder, for your service. And thank you, Madam Chair, for your leadership.

CMS recently implemented a final rule that changed payments for speech generating devices (SGDs) so that Medicare beneficiaries no longer have the option to purchase them, but instead must rent them.

I have been very supportive of the Charter Schools Program (CSP), and thus was disappointed that the administration level-funded the Charter Schools Program in its fiscal year 2015 budget.

I don't agree with that, but we will look into it.

I am going to be pressing this budget to spend our money where it works, and stop spending money where it doesn't. It is just as simple as that.

The charter community, which is $1 billion with 1 million kids on the waiting list, is turning around, in our State, the lowest performing schools, taking them from the lowest to the highest. It is a model that works. It has been proven…

I am a strong supporter of high-performing public schools.

I have been, along with many Members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, a strong champion for charter schools.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And let me begin by thanking you for your extraordinary leadership all these years on this committee.

Not what you can do, but what the country needs. It is two different things.

The country should know. Because it is billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars, and we are, like, throwing nickels and dimes at it.

Continuing to grossly underfund water infrastructure projects in this Nation is counter to economic development and the creation of high-paying middle-class jobs.

I think he raises an excellent point. And I understand the constraints, you know, Secretary Darcy, that you are under.

We can't find enough money to dredge the shipping channel that supports this private investment.

Louisiana and the Gulf Coast could literally allocate the entire budget in just projects that we have that are authorized and that are literally shovel-ready.

It is a 17-percent decrease from last year's budget. It is woefully inadequate.

The budget that we are reviewing today with the Army Corps of Engineers, this amount represents the smallest percentage of the Federal budget in more than 200-year history of the Army Corps.

I mean, there is no question about that.

The Department is fully committed to enforcing our trade remedy laws so that American industries and workers have the opportunity to compete on a level playing field with their foreign competitors.

What is causing the delay in Department of Justice's review of the New Orleans Police Department's policies?

I want to commend you and the President for your emphasis on it.

We need to change our policies, we need to provide additional resources.

Thank you, Attorney General Holder, for your service. And thank you, Madam Chair, for your leadership.

I'm not sure how effective pepper spray is going to be, Mr. Secretary, in the hands of one officer with 100 prisoners out of their cells.

Due to fiscal constraints there is no near term plan to recapitalize VFA-204's legacy F/A-18 aircraft with F-35Cs or Fleet representative Hornets.