the United States is in the final stages of negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive free-trade agreement with Mexico, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and seven other countries. I come to the floor today to ask a fundamental…

Protecting our forests from threats has so many benefits, soil erosion, protect habitats for wildlife, take in atmospheric carbon.

We need to have sustainable funding that people can count on year after year.

climate change is already altering our nation's forests in significant ways and those alterations are likely to accelerate in the future.

According to Forest Service's assessments, more than half our nation's fresh water comes from forest ecosystems.

We're falling behind in our preparation for known threats, and we're not laying the intellectual and the scientific groundwork to prepare for the next round of threats.

Infectious diseases pose an enormous threat to human health and to the world economy.

If Congress is truly concerned about the very real threat of contagious diseases, then we need to start making some smart decisions right now.

Congress is terrible about spending money to make sure we're ready for these crises before they occur.

We have got to get back to investing in our kids so they get a chance to get a decent education without being crushed by student loan debt.

The cost is too high. Part of the reason the cost is too high, you're telling us, is because of regulations imposed by the Federal Government.

We're putting $160 billion into universities all across this country. ... we want to see something on the other side.