Well, people in Michigan are extremely offended by this, and I am very offended on their behalf. The people we are talking about have never been out of work in their lives. They are mortified. The idea of having to go get food assistance…

I would like to first commend the Senator and her staff's hard work on this critically important bill, which brings accountability, transparency, and oversight to the opaque derivatives market. For too long the over-the-counter derivatives…

I agree that the integrity of these exemptions is critical to the reforms enacted in this bill and to the safety of our financial system. That is why I support the strong anti-abuse provisions included in the bill.

I appreciate the Senator's help to ensure that this bill recognizes that manufacturers and commercial entities were victims of this financial crisis, not the cause, and that it does not unfairly penalize them for using these products as…

Again, I appreciate the Senator's efforts to work with me on language that ensures manufacturers are not forced to unnecessarily divert working capital from core business activities, such as investing in new equipment and creating more…

We're going to move as quickly as we possibly can. I feel a great sense of urgency about this.

I mean, we can't be talking about something that has an interim report in 2012 and a final report in 2014. I mean, that's just absolutely unacceptable.

I come to the floor, as I have on a number of occasions, to urge colleagues to extend unemployment benefits for now well over 1 million people who have lost their benefits because of the stalling, the filibustering, unfortunately, by…

So, we look forward to working with you as we move--the Army Corps of Engineers--as quickly as possible to give us the answers on what that means--how to do that, what that would cost--and we can develop a long-term plan for doing that.

I'd much rather be focusing on ways to redirect commercial activity, and funding that, which is much cheaper than what in the world we would do if this--if the Asian carp got into the Great Lakes.

We have to act as quickly as humanly possible to be able to address this.

How critical do you think it is that we complete construction on the third barrier and the flood controls along the Des Plaines River to prevent the fish from moving closer to the lakes?

I think the only thing that I would continue to strongly urge you to do is to continue to look at the closure of the locks until we can figure this out, in Chicago.

Your legislation is absolutely critical to move that study forward on a much more quick timetable.

We must not be the generation that allowed Asian carp into the Great Lakes on our watch.

I also want to put into the record a statement from Senator Durbin, who is cosponsoring the Permanent Prevention of Asian Carp Act with me in the Senate.

It's clear that the monitoring is, in fact, doing what we needed, even though we don't like the results of having found a fish in Lake Calumet.

there's a great sense of urgency about not wasting any time at all about this.

I would strongly urge you to make sure that Michigan is incorporated into that.

we have to find a permanent solution as quickly as possible.

Senator Durbin and I and others have sent a letter to the administration asking that there be one person put in charge of coordination.

I'm always concerned when I'm hearing--I understand the need for standards and for committees and so on, but we need to move as quickly as possible on this.

we have to tighten up the focus on what the Army Corps is being asked to do

Tomorrow evening, I think at about 5:30, we are going to have a vote that is going to immediately impact over 1 million people across the country, and millions more after that, if we do not extend unemployment benefits as we have done in…

when I think of Senator Byrd and all of our great memories of him, it reminds me of how important it was to him to understand what people are going through in their lives--in this economy, certainly. I know if he were here, he would be on…