Elizabeth Warren

I see that as a good start, but we also recognize that some seniors still need skilled nursing facilities without spending any time in the hospital.

That is the promise of Medicare, and if we are letting some of our seniors down, then we need to fix it.

This is a serious problem and it is a problem that is getting worse.

It is powerfully important here.

I urge you to think about what should happen in the interim as you move toward this science and, in the interim, how it is that we better serve families who have newly been added to these flood zones.

I really want to say here, though, this is a real hardship on people who are newly being designated in these flood zone areas.

But the question I asked is, what kind of timetable do you think you have on this?

So, if the homeowner wants to say, wait a minute, we are higher than the others around here, for example, then they have already got the information, in effect, for free in this process.

Will this technology mean that FEMA flood designations can go home by home so that each homeowner will know the elevation and, therefore, their part of the risk that their home faces?

Now these new flood maps create a lot of difficulties for homeowners in Massachusetts and all around the country.

When Congress passed Biggert-Waters a few years ago, homeowners got blindsided by significant rate increases and new flood zone maps.

I very much encourage the States to step up their oversight as well.

I believe it's time to cut the interest rate on student loans, and I think this should be something that we should be able to support, both Democrats and Republicans.

A Federal student loan refinancing program would let borrowers get lower interest rates without losing out on any of the Federal protections that they're currently guaranteed.

I'm disappointed about what happened because student loan refinancing should not be a partisan issue.

Last month, Senator Durbin, Senator Harkin, Senator Franken and many others introduced a student loan refinancing bill to lower the interest rates on outstanding student loans.

This is another good example of an issue that really does require patients and family conversations about the drugs.

That's entirely preventable, in my view, and entirely unacceptable.

The system needs to be fixed so that that cannot happen so these young adults don't die.

The commitment to patient safety can't stop when someone leaves the hospital or the doctor's office.

If your hospital is high, you shouldn't be accredited.

So we've got a payment response.

So until we get to a point where the CEO of the hospital is lying awake at night worrying about patient safety, I don't think we're going to really, meaningfully move the needle beyond these few leading organizations that are going to do…

In other words, I just want to start with what we already know. We know how to make patients safer.

It's also clear that we have consumer friendly labels for over-the-counter drugs--Tylenol, cough syrup--and that we do not yet have those on prescription drugs.