Chris Van Hollen

Just to be clear in terms of the Democratic proposals, if you take our budget proposal here together with the work that we have done over the last couple of years, which reduces spending by over $1.5 trillion, $700 billion in revenue, take…

I would just point out to my colleagues that the Affordable Care Act, with the reforms it made to Medicare, we extended the life of the Medicare trust fund as part of that effort going forward.

Actually the Republican budget does follow some of our European friends, but follows them in the wrong way. The strategy places like the U.K. have followed is an austerity approach--immediate deep cuts. And guess what that did? That sent…

We may be better off as a nation to have more people educated in college and educated in graduate school.

It seems offensive that the government might be pursuing an interest that the private lenders were not willing to pursue.

We are trying to look after the public good, not just the return on investment for a particular bank.

May I ask how much time remains on each side? The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Stutzman). The gentleman from Maryland has 2 minutes, and the gentleman from Indiana has 3 minutes.

I urge you to come together to reduce our current budget deficits in a balanced way that rejects benefit cuts to our crucial entitlement programs or budget cuts for programs that benefit the country in ways that far outweigh their deficit…

The United States also must abide by its treaty responsibilities to the sovereign people of tribal nations.

We can create more opportunities by harnessing our Nation's rich coastal and marine resources.

Under the sequester, tribes could lose almost $130 million, impacting areas such as human services, law enforcement, BIE schools, economic development and natural resources.

Instead of addressing the root causes that threaten to increase our health costs at an exponential rate, this committee has proposed benefit cuts to Medicare recipients that would make our system more expensive for everyone and weakened…

I am concerned that unexempted programs under sequestration... will suffer.

My district alone is poised to supply our country with 20% of its offshore wind energy needs.

The cost of monitoring by NOAA should not have to fall on the backs of our fishermen.

I would urge the Committee to protect our budget from impeding the growth of the renewable energy sector.

I wholeheartedly support and have cosponsored your bill to replace the sequester with smart, targeted cuts to the oil and gas industry.

It is irresponsible to allow the sequester to threaten the quality of life for our military families while their spouses or parents are away from home to fight for our country.

I urge the committee to heed their advice to attain balanced deficit reductions and avoid the harmful job losses of the sequester.

I think it is clear that the sequester is exactly the wrong thing for the country to do right now.

We have had a bipartisan relationship when it comes to dealing with our committee budget issues.

I appreciate those comments. I do have a written statement to submit for the record.

I urge Republican leadership to come to the table in order to seriously and responsibly seek a balanced approach.

If we are to make progress in reducing waste and maximizing services, we can't allow the sequester to continue.

I just want to make that clear to our colleagues.