Susan Collins

I am committed to getting to yes in this general proposition.

This has been a priority of the Chairman and mine for several years.

I would hope that you would confirm me to be a part of that team.

I have a lot of reservations about the establishment of a White House cyber security czar because it makes it far more difficult for Members of Congress to exercise our oversight responsibilities.

By your colleague, are you talking about the FBI detailee assigned to you?

So I am trying to better understand why you decided not to.

So later that same year, the contributions by Chinese nationals to the presidential campaign, the Clinton-Gore campaign, became a major issue.

Cyber security responsibilities across the Federal Government will be the subject of much debate.

I join the Chairman in welcoming Rand Beers as the nominee today.

The Directorate is charged with ensuring successful implementation of the chemical facility security program.

I am committed to that objective. I think that it just makes really good common sense.

I know you said in response to a question from Senator Lieberman that this was one of many items and that it was not that specific, that it was vague reporting.

I want to go back to the issue in 1996 on the briefing that you received from the FBI agents who alerted you to the interest of Chinese operatives in influencing our congressional elections.

GSA is asking the American manufacturing community to help meet its goal of 'on time, on budget, on green.'

This doesn't make much sense to me.

Does this budget have support for the development of small business clusters?

How is the SBA going to ensure, when you have over 5,000 lenders and 270 certified development companies that are making loans, how are you going to ensure the integrity of that process when your nondisaster staff is shrinking?

It is just infuriating to me that they are cutting off credit to small businesses that, in many cases or in most cases, are paying on time.

I look forward to working with you to give small businesses the support and assistance they need to emerge from this recession strong and nimble.

Senator Collins has been working with this group for some time.

I am getting very involved in this myself.

But initially, the upfront cost is more to do construction. Correct?

The administration did not follow the priorities set forth in the judiciary's 5-year courthouse project plan.

I think not only about the dollars that we're going to bring in directly, but also about the deterrent effect.

I just want to associate myself with the chairman's last question to express concern about the need for more enforcement and education to deal with these scams.