Ralph Lee Abraham

I am disappointed over that decision, Mr. President, for passage of H.R. 2516 would have provided my State of Michigan with approximately $200 million more than we averaged under ISTEA. However, I stand by ready to assist the chairman in…

Yes, the Forest Service has expressed its desire to purchase these acres. I understand that this acquisition is on the Forest Service's priority list.

My colleague is again correct. the Great Lakes Fisheries Trust and the Forest Service have a great opportunity to protect some of Michigan's pristine natural resources. Unfortunately, if we do not act soon, this opportunity will quickly…

The senior Senator from Michigan is correct. These funds have been budgeted but have not yet been earmarked for specific purchases.

I was wondering if Senator Nickles and I could engage the chairman of the Finance Committee in a colloquy regarding the proposed tax on the domestic portion of international journeys [DPIJ]. As I understand the new tax, it will impose a…

These Tastykakes were the bet of the Senator from Pennsylvania to our Little Caesars pizzas from Detroit. I might add that Red Wings' owner Mike Illitch is also the owner of Little Caesars. While I now have some bragging rights on the…

Instead, what we have seen is the Department of Justice intervening in lawsuits in a way that would, in fact, preclude, rather than allow, States to extricate themselves from these various judicial circumstances where judges were running…

I am happy to inform you as of 2:25 p.m. yesterday afternoon the third baby in the Abraham family was born. I am proud of our new son named Spencer who has joined us.

Yes. My intention is not to displace current INS practice with respect to students who continue to work in good faith toward their degree but who temporarily fall out of status because of circumstances beyond their reasonable control.

No. In the situation you described, where the student continues to work in good faith toward his degree, the professor's directive to the student would constitute good cause for the student falling out of status temporarily.

I think certainly it is a responsibility of elected officials to be observant of public opinion and constituent views. But I think it is also important to understand that polling and the use of polls is oftentimes quite contradictory and…

I support full funding for education and continued vigilance over Medicare fraud. In the past, I have offered several amendments to protect education spending from cuts as well as to create new initiatives to fight Medicare fraud. My…

I do not want to express the suggestion that we have spent a huge amount of time considering the specific role of the head of SBA. But let me go back to the point as to why the chief counsel for advocacy was initially identified. That is…

At this point, I would not be in a position to make that change, I say to the Senator from Ohio. Because my mind is not fully closed on this, there are a number of people who participated in putting together this amendment initially, and I…

I will say we felt, of the various responsibilities at the Small Business Administration, the advocate's office is, in effect, a somewhat independent figure whose principal responsibility under current law would seem to be very consistent…

Our understanding is, with some changes which we made prior to introducing the amendment here today, it was to provide sort of a fail-safe to ensure that the concerns that the Senator from Ohio has expressed about the possibility of having…

In essence, our amendment would ensure that Federal agencies periodically assess the utility of regulations that disproportionately impact small business. I think it is critically important any regulatory reform bill take into account…