John Sarbanes

The problem, and what I think people are fed up with across the country, is that their government, this government won't tackle important issues without getting permission from special interest.

As we have said now, many times, in September of this year we saw the announcement from the Trump administration that FDA would be releasing a compliance policy to ban all flavored e-cigarette products including mint and menthol products.

I think they would be shocked to hear that there is so little oversight and transparency with respect to cosmetics.

It is sort of striking how unpoliced this area is.

We need to invest in our electric grid. Not only is that grid aging, but we need to modernize it for the 21st century.

Decarbonizing our economy is at the top of that list in trying to achieve zero emissions by 2050.

Climate change, the existential crisis of our time, and we have to take all measures to address that.

And before you put in place the procedures and the processes through this program at FDA to facilitate approval of that kind of technology, can you give me a sense of what it would have taken, how long it would have taken, the hoops that…

Well, if I had a choice between a slow that said 'Make WMATA Great Again' or 'Wait and Make WMATA Good Again,' I would choose the latter.

It just seems like the industry has found this gigantic loophole for going back and creating that whole public health crisis all over again.

I am proud to be a co-sponsor of the bill that we are talking about today.

I think through the oversight process here, there is a real role for Congress to play to really try to figure out how to fix this and add greater clarity for implementation because otherwise we are leaving, you know, many, many young…

I am glad we have had the opportunity to work together over the years and most recently to try to strengthen telework within Federal agencies.

But one thing we have come to understand and we probably could have understood in the moment with the opioid crisis if we hadn't, in effect, had the wool pulled over our eyes by an industry with very effective marketing techniques, is how…

I think this is horrifying what is happening and it is sort of we are playing the same reel over again.

I really want to emphasize that these have been carefully put together.

This bill, H.R. 51, is the path.

I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to drop this quest for scapegoats, realize that Congress created the PSLF mess, and come to the table with us to do what is right for borrowers across the country.

It is the responsibility for Congress, of all of us here today, not loan servicers, not the Department, to fix a program that has clearly been overpromised and under-delivered.

I don't think there really is a good powerful rationale to object to H.R. 51.

This is something that is owed to the residents of the District of Columbia by this Nation.

Congress finds that the District of Columbia residents deserve full congressional voting rights and self-government, which only statehood can provide.

This is a historic day and I want to congratulate the District of Columbia.

It is up to us here, who are the ones at whom those efforts are being directed day in and day out to take action to diminish undue influence that comes from these special interests and lift up and expand the influence of the average person…

Nobody has manipulated that more effectively than the pharmaceutical industry in the ways that you just described.