Chris Van Hollen

And I want to thank Senator Murray for referencing her 40,000 constituents who are among almost three million public servants who are affected by this.

I am pleased to say in the Senate Appropriations Committee, we worked on a bipartisan basis to put forward the budget that we did, which again does not fully meet the mark, but is certainly a lot better than what would happen with the…

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome Commissioner. I do want to take this opportunity to thank you for your great service.

The Senate Appropriations Committee recently advanced a bill to increase SSA funding by $509 million over 24 levels.

We are not going to let anyone weaken benefits and break our promise--not for seniors today and certainly not for seniors tomorrow.

I fight hard every year to make sure we secure necessary funding for the Social Security Administration.

It is time for Congress to enact the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act, which would ensure solvency for the Social Security Trust Fund for the next 75 years by taxing all income over $400,000.

I was sorry we could not meet the full request, but we tried to get close.

Every time House Republicans propose blanket across-the-board cuts to domestic spending... they are in effect proposing that more seniors waiting longer and longer for benefits they were promised and getting less help.

If benefit cuts are now off the table, that proposal is dead, yet there is no other Republican bill.

Social Security today, not ten years from now but today, is struggling to serve more customers than ever with staffing levels reduced to 50 year lows.

The American people deserve better. In fact, they have already paid for better.

We could finally do away with the windfall elimination provision and the government pension offset, which hurts so many retired public servants across Rhode Island and the country.

The bipartisan rebuke to cutting Social Security's customer service I think was heard throughout the country, and was a great encouragement to our workers.

Volvo is actually losing orders right now from people that want to, you know, purchase these electric medium and heavy duty trucks, but cannot because of this issue of charging stations.

When you have a huge, what economists call externality, which is climate change, I know some of my colleagues do not really believe in that as a threat.

Volvo is actually losing orders right now from people that want to, you know, purchase these electric medium and heavy duty trucks, but cannot because of this issue of charging stations.

When you have a huge, what economists call externality, which is climate change, I know some of my colleagues do not really believe in that as a threat.

I appreciate that. As you say, you want to work at both ends of the equation, the expense as well as the profit end.

Thank you, Madam Chairman.

It makes no sense and undermines our interests every day that we do not have ambassadors on post at places around the world.

We need all our players on the playing field.

You cannot beat something with nothing.

It is a dereliction of duty, in my view, that we are not moving these men and women through the process.

I appreciate that. As you say, you want to work at both ends of the equation, the expense as well as the profit end.