Susan Collins

In order to avoid this problem, could HUD require lenders to set up an escrow account where, as with forward mortgages, property taxes, and insurance are paid out of that account and then added to the mortgage balance?

The Administration has made several announcements regarding existing housing programs, yet there is much more that must be done to stabilize the housing market and reinvigorate private sector participation.

I look forward to working with my colleagues in both the House and Senate to enact a responsible budget compromise.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) faces many challenges in balancing the goal of strengthening responsible homeownership while minimizing the financial risk to FHA and the taxpayer.

Eventually, FHA should play a more limited role, in my judgment, in the mortgage market and help encourage the private sector to reassert its primacy.

A financially sound FHA is an essential component in the recovery of the housing market.

I remain concerned that we must reform our present housing finance programs, and in doing so, we must remain mindful of the need to limit the exposure of taxpayers to additional financial losses.

I mean, most countries do have controls on the cost of medications.

But what those surveys show is that about 40 percent of the beneficiaries think that there are too many--

With respect to the vital research and development on new drugs that the pharmaceutical industry does, isn't the American consumer really subsidizing that for the rest of the world?

On the one hand, you look at the VA system, where government has used its purchasing power for years to negotiate prices.

I was proud to vote for that legislation, and I think that it is possibly--no, I am going to go out on a limb here and say it is the only entitlement program in history where the actual experience has produced much lower costs both for the…

And I think the fact that we have market-based pricing rather than government price controls is a significant part of the reason that that is the case.

Why don't I just quickly go down the panel?

I have heard concerns from my constituents that some drug plans have what I refer to as a Fail First Policy in which a beneficiary may be prescribed a more expensive medication but first has to use a lower cost drug or a plan-preferred…

We need to address the portion of the fiscal year 2013 budget shortfall with some sort of supplemental OCO request.

I don't understand the difference in treatment.

The impact of these budget shortfalls are serious and unacceptable.

I am particularly concerned about fraud against our seniors.

I remain concerned that there is a lack of coordination by U.S. law enforcement to address this crime.

Fraud against the elderly is a nation-wide problem.

It is absolutely critical for the United States Government to show a long-term commitment--beyond the next fiscal year--to developing offshore wind.

I am determined to see the U.S. as the global leader in deepwater offshore wind.

I personally think that it's not fair for the Department to blame the readiness crisis entirely on sequestration.

I agree with you that sequestration is an extraordinarily poor policy, and it makes no sense not to set priorities.