When I first met families whose children had Type 1, I knew that I had to get involved.

I urge you to keep it up. Our hope for a full life depends on it.

Thank you very much for leading this effort.

That is, indeed, absolutely critical research.

Since I founded the Senate Diabetes Caucus, we have been successful in working together in a bipartisan manner to triple the funding for diabetes research.

Diabetes is a lifelong condition that does not discriminate.

I particularly want to thank our delegates, my constituent Quinn, who did such a great job.

Earlier this year, we passed legislation to extend the Special Diabetes Program which provides $150 million a year above and over the regular appropriations for Type 1 diabetes research.

I am very alarmed by a recent CDC study that shows that Type 1 diabetes among young people rose by a troubling 23 percent between 2001 and 2009.

I rise today to wish the town of Freedom, ME, a very happy 200th birthday. The people of Freedom are proud of their hometown and the generations of hard-working and caring people who have made it such a wonderful place to live, work, and…

I rise to speak on an issue of significant importance to the forest products industry in Maine. I am pleased to be joined here by my colleague from Maine, Senator King. We have both heard from a number of our constituents in Maine who are…

it is a great pleasure to wish the Town of Columbia Falls a very happy 150th birthday. Throughout this year, Columbia Falls will celebrate the generations of hard-working and caring people who have made it such a wonderful place to live…

I rise today to introduce legislation to extend and improve a program aimed at addressing the unique needs of rural schools. The Rural Education Achievement Program, or REAP, is designed to help level the playing field for small and…

We should be respecting individuals' wishes.

About one-quarter of Medicare funds are spent on care at the end of life that is geared toward expensive high-tech interventions.

Thanks to the Retirement Research Foundation, Maine's coalition received a three-year grant to develop their POLST Program in accordance with the national standards.

We have to make sure that everyone understands their options.

But that is pretty unlikely----

I do not know that we should be encouraging college students to fill out advance directives and POLST orders.

These issues also have long been of personal interest to me.

I think it is really sad when this important discussion degenerates into slogans and demagoguery, such as death panels.

patients and their families should be able to trust that the care that they receive in their final days is not only of high quality, but also consistent with their values, their wishes, and desire for autonomy and dignity.

Patients and their families should not have to fear that the process of dying will be marked by preventable pain.

Americans are the only people on earth who believe that death is negotiable.

But, in fact, they also, as your Five Wishes document shows, can be used to direct the kind of care that they do want to receive.