Mary Landrieu

This cannot be done on the cheap, and it has to be well resourced and well focused.

Thank you so much for holding this hearing.

Cutting a research and development budget borders on reckless.

Can you please explain what a passive reactor is and why it is or is not considered safer than the boiling water or pressurized water reactors?

I would like to speak for about 10 minutes. I know Senator Bingaman is on the floor, and maybe other Members are coming to the floor to talk on other subjects. ____________________

I wish to thank Senator Cardin for his cooperation. He has been so patient. It is an important amendment. It is an amendment that both Senator Snowe and I support and many other colleagues support it. We hope to get to a time, if not this…

I call for regular order now with respect to the McConnell amendment, which is the pending amendment on our bill, amendment No. 183, and send a second-degree amendment to the desk. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The McConnell amendment…

I may not have an objection. We are trying to get it cleared on our side. If the Senator will explain it, we can get back to him in short order.

Would the Senator mind explaining that amendment, and I will make sure it is cleared on our side and we will see what we can do.

There is no objection. But before we do that, I ask the Senator a question. I actually like this amendment, No. 184. The Senator spoke with me about this previously. It has some merit. I thank the Senator for being cooperative. If he could…

The reason I ask the Senator that is because it is striking to me that some Members from the other side of the aisle will come and argue that programs like this should be slated for cuts and reductions, and yet failed to vote favorably to…

Would the Senator explain--I think he knows because he is quite an expert on this program. I agree 100 percent with the views he just expressed. What is the basic average Social Security income that a person might receive? I understand it…

I thank the Senator from Pennsylvania. I do intend to support his amendment. It is an excellent one. Hopefully, we can get a vote on it sometime today or tomorrow. At this time, pursuant to a unanimous consent agreement, we will hear a…

At this time, Senator Casey, whose amendment is pending, wishes to speak a few minutes. I know at 12 o'clock, under a unanimous consent agreement, we will have a speech from the Senator from Connecticut. I ask unanimous consent that at…

Can I also ask the Chair this: We have filed and discussed Hutchison 197, Paul 199, and Sanders 207, which are not pending but have been discussed on the floor. Does that list exist at the desk? The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Those…

I thank the Senator from Texas. Hopefully, as we go through the day, we will have a discussion on that amendment and others. I will try to give a recap. My ranking member is on the floor, and we wish to proceed today as we did yesterday…

Most of the programs I am familiar with at the Federal level have built-in sunsets, because they have limited authorization. How does the Senator's amendment either override that or undercut that? Why is his amendment necessary?

I will speak for just a moment, if I could. I know people in Washington and people in America do not believe we can actually eliminate a program. We are getting ready to eliminate one now in a bipartisan fashion to cut funding and to cut a…

I ask for the yeas and nays. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there a sufficient second? There is a sufficient second. The question is on agreeing to the amendment. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk called the roll.

Is there any time remaining? The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. There is no time remaining.

But we want to be careful as we are examining these things that it is really fraud that we are after and not honest disaster victims who made reasonable good-faith decisions in the aftermath of a storm.

I do think that we have to take seriously our responsibility to curb government waste where we find it, and to eliminate and prosecute fraud and abuse.

The reason that we are into this mess in the first place is because the Republican leadership, in my view, undercut funds to FEMA.

This is exactly the money that is necessary for FEMA to keep up their computer software and reporting mechanisms to cut down on fraud and abuse.

What concerns me is right now in this Congress, there are efforts to significantly reduce funding for the Department of Homeland Security to cover an existing shortfall in FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund (DRF).