Mary Landrieu

The last thing that I am going to do is sit here as the Chair of this Committee and allow the sort of overseer and regulator of the SBA do the same thing that some of the regulators are doing to small business banks, and you will…

I would like to see if there is some other way to recoup those dollars to the Federal Treasury.

I would like to see these programs expand. I know there is some subsidy required to do that.

The other good feedback we are getting, Senator Snowe, is from our state partners, particularly Michigan and North Carolina.

In his fiscal year 2013 request for the SBA, President Obama once again signaled his commitment to our nation's nearly 28 million small businesses.

There is nothing small about small business in America.

According to the SBA, small businesses are responsible for employing roughly half of all working Americans.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent it adjourn under the previous order. There being no objection, the Senate, at 8:01 p.m., adjourned until Wednesday, March 28, 2012, at 10 a.m…

There will be two votes around 6 p.m. tomorrow on judicial nominations. Additionally, cloture was filed today on the Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act. If no agreement is reached, that vote will occur on Thursday. ____________________

It is a good thing. The Senator from Alaska is right on as usual on this subject and in the main stream of what most Americans, I believe, are thinking about. I wanted to ask the Senator from Alaska, following his comments--I mean, why…

However, for the fiscal year 2013 budget year, the President proposes a $48 million decrease.

At a time when NIH budgets are flat, and when the most heavily funded States will continue to be funded as they always have, why would the administration propose reducing the one pot of money that is specifically designed for States that…

I believe that the NIH funding should be a priority and that its benefits extend well beyond its research discoveries.

I'm also troubled with the proposals to cap inflationary cost and reduce the average award of competing research project grants below the fiscal year 2012 level.

I do not agree with the funding level proposed by the administration for the NIH.

Some people may say that this country cannot afford these investments--I say we cannot afford not to make them.

I recognize that the Corps has consistently been woefully underfunded, which presents great challenges in addressing the needs of Louisiana and the Nation.

For decades, the people of my State have been fighting a noble battle to save the most productive and environmentally significant coast and delta in the world.

We are losing 25 to 35 square miles of wetlands per year--about a football field an hour--which places millions of lives and critical national resources at alarming risk.

Well, Madam Chair, I'm with you 1,000 percent. I serve on the Appropriations Committee, obviously, I'm on the subcommittee, but I can honestly say, of all the committees I serve on, there is no budget that is in more crisis than this one.

I don't think we can have a net loss of wetlands.

We also have to be sensitive to the taxpayers that are picking up this tab.

So, Madam Chair, just think about this big picture for a minute. Of all the waterways in the country that bring in resources from the South, the East, and the West, our channels, this budget, is barely maintaining one-third of their…

There's no way around it. And until we can figure out a way to put more private and public money on the table, we're not going to get there.

This budget that we have in front of us... simply does not have enough money to maintain or invest or build the structures that we have to to build an economy that lasts.