Susan Collins

I know how absolutely critical the Guard is to emergency preparedness and response.

And I think that is why the TAGs and the Governors have been virtually unanimous in raising their very deep and genuine concerns about the Army's plan.

I want to give a very specific example from my home State of Maine of what this budget would mean for the National Guard there.

The pending return of sequestration in fiscal year 2016 will quickly erode these gains.

I think it would be a disaster if the sequestration, which has already harmed our Government, comes back into play in the year 2016.

I was, therefore, disappointed when the President's budget request calls for such drastic cuts to the Army Reserve and National Guard end strengths.

It is going to continue to be one of the core missions of this Committee to highlight and combat all types of fraud that are confronting senior citizens.

Thank you for an excellent hearing, and thanks to our witnesses today.

It sounds like we get back to Senator McCaskill's point that the best deterrent--though I still think consumer education and warnings on those ads would be very helpful, but the best deterrent is going to be aggressive prosecution…

I mean, can you imagine if seniors had a disclosure that said, 'It is a myth to say that gold is a safe investment'?

I would ask that the agency get back to us.

I want to get back to a point that Senator McCaskill raised.

I think that the Federal Government produces excellent materials, but really fails when it comes to getting them into the hands of seniors.

Those are excellent suggestions, and I really appreciate your sharing them with us.

I think we need to up front put some disclosure requirements on these dealers, the good and the bad.

It is a myth to say that gold is a safe investment.

Too often victims are not told that they are purchasing a derivatives contract, nor are they told that leverage greatly increases the risk that they could lose their investment.

A key feature of this scam is to get the customer to pay real money for a fiction--gold, silver, platinum, or palladium that the scammer never actually delivers.

It is indeed a sad commentary on human nature that the cruelty of the scammers who target our Nation's seniors seems limited only by their creativity and never by their conscience.

It is important to me and to my constituents that NOAA remain committed to seeing through the full implementation of the Penobscot River Agreement.

If done improperly, I am very concerned that TPP could have a disastrous effect on the remaining athletic footwear workers in my State.

To me, we ought to be rewarding those manufacturers who did stay and keep some of their manufacturing here in America rather than moving overseas.

We really don't want to find ourselves going from crisis to crisis year after year.

One thing is clear to me, and that is that our Maine fishermen are struggling now, and they're very worried about what the future is going to bring.

Waiving that match was absolutely critical given the constraints that the States have and to ensuring that the funding will be used in ways that have both immediate impacts and constructive long-term effects.