Ben Cardin

A critical part of U.S. energy policy will be in the area of increased energy conservation and energy efficiency.

The Highway Trust Fund and its revenue sources--namely the gas tax--have been a reliable mechanism for financing highway and transit programs for five decades.

We need to invest in a stronger transportation infrastructure.

It may have worked in the past, but it will no longer work today or in the future because part of our energy policy must be to use less fossil fuels.

I think we are well positioned to bring a bill out, thanks to your leadership.

I would say the flip side of the coin would be doing too little because the law at this point is clearly in need of some improvement.

I strongly believe that having the appropriate safeguards on law enforcement on getting information makes us safer

I think there is fundamentally a risk in Congress doing too much and there is a risk in Congress doing too little.

But don't you think we will be storing almost everything in third parties in the near future?

Well, I appreciate you dodging the question, and I understand--if there is a rationale, please let us know the rationale.

I am concerned about Government.

The truth is any law that can go 24 years before people come here and say it needs some updating passes a pretty high bar.

I think we really need to understand that it is difficult to get ahead of technology and we do not want to do anything in our laws that prevents the development of technology.

And that is not hampering you from getting timely information?

I do not want to get too technical.

We are talking about rights of Americans, fundamental principles that have their roots in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

I expect that will change over time.

Thank you Chairman Dorgan for the opportunity to share our views on an issue that is of great importance to our region.

We must restore fiscal discipline.

We are concerned that investors are getting nervous because of the delays.

There is no question that managing the debt and managing spending are critically important of economic activities you need to get out of a recession.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I totally agree with you. I was just trying to point out that we have got to work together on fiscal discipline.

We need to get beyond just the current way that it is reported.

Unless we have good statistics, we cannot plan how to deal with this.