Olympia Snowe

It is a bit of a shell game.

We have a $30 billion program and an urgent employment issue in America, and we predicated putting our eggs in that basket.

I am just telling you those are the facts.

We are talking $1.8 billion out of $30 billion went to increase small business lending.

There is no doubt that nothing is more urgent than creating jobs for the American people because our nation has been plagued by a staggering unemployment rate for nearly three years.

It is important to explore the issues of job creation and the lack of economic growth, the lack of job creation overall and what has gone wrong, frankly.

That is the point here.

It is so crucial when we started this process back in 2004 to insert it in the original legislation when we were overhauling the Intelligence Community.

Yes. I think that is an excellent idea, because it is basically a clearinghouse for all of that information.

I want to thank each and every one of you. I know you all have shared some extraordinary stories of perseverance and persistence and courage in the face of tremendous adversity.

I think that is a requirement we need to change. I think that anybody doing business with the Federal Government should be responsible; and the prime contractor, they are doing business with the Federal Government. They are responsible for…

I cannot see in this age of technology why we cannot get this underway much more quickly.

Why are there such delays in payments to businesses?

I do not know how many hearings I have sat through on the issue of contracting, and the failure of agencies to do their due diligence when it comes to fulfilling their contracting responsibilities. It is truly frustrating.

The issue that is pending on the floor is illustrative of the problems we are facing which is to have some kind of consistency and constancy with respect to funding so that it goes to the heart of what you are attempting to do.

I was Chair of this Committee during the time of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, so, I certainly understood the magnitude of these events and what was required, which was so much in the way of recovery.

Now, obviously you cannot always get it on the mark. It is a law of averages, but in this case, to provide a 10-year average.

I would agree, Chair Landrieu.

This common sense approach would alleviate the political haggling and brinksmanship that has become all too common place in Washington.

Let me be clear. There is simply no excuse for Washington continuing to fund disaster accounts on an emergency and ad hoc basis rather than preparing for them in advance.

Senator Snowe and I are committed to help make this process better, to improve upon it.

Senator Snowe believes, that Senator Landrieu believes, that Meredith believes are important

It is a huge safety issue for us, in the way we look at it and what's happened on the thousands of miles of roads that we have in our state.

It's a matter of commerce; it's a matter of jobs; it's a matter of industry.

We believe that these 100,000-pound trucks, they don't have any business on the local roads.