I rise today to pay tribute to a great Senator and a friend and mentor of mine, Senator Robert C. Byrd. When I look at his desk, a place from which he spoke such powerful words so many times, it is hard to believe he will not be on the…

I thank my friend from Ohio. There are many things we share in common: a love of the Great Lakes, and we have a rivalry in football and baseball and our great universities, and so on. But we also share a tremendous passion for what is…

Thank you. Let me indicate again, there is a huge difference in view as to how to get us out of the deficit hole. One side, with a set of policies--I am sure they were sincere--a set of policies that said: We will give it to the wealthiest…

First, if I might, I wish to take a moment to say thank you to the senior Senator from Louisiana for her leadership on small business. Her efforts in terms of job creation and availability of capital and so on is right on point. My…

In closing, I wish to take a few more minutes to stress again how disappointing and, frankly, outrageous I find what happened tonight to be as it relates to the continual 8 weeks of blocking the jobs bill in front of us, for the ability…

with all due respect to our Republican leader, I have to express concern on a couple of points. He was just talking about court decisions, a court decision that said BP is a person; that said all big corporations have the same rights as…

this evening we had a vote that I find to be extremely concerning. Once again, after 8 weeks of trying to work out some kind of an agreement with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to overcome a Republican filibuster--changing…

I wish to thank the Senator from Louisiana again because she is focusing on jobs. That is what we are focusing on every day here, with every bill: jobs, putting people to work, supporting small businesses, supporting manufacturers, and…

the spill in the Gulf is another sign, in my mind, that we have to require more upfront preparation, upfront planning, resources be set aside to prevent pollution

I know that while the individual issues, Mr. Bromwich, that you are having to deal with in the agency will take time...

I want to thank you for what I know is around-the-clock effort.

I rise today with a very urgent and critical situation from my home State and the home State of the Presiding Officer and for our Great Lakes in general. We are just finding out today that a commercial fisherman, contracted by the…

our legislation would require on the front end that those plans be in place

It really was given--it was under the umbrella of a philosophy or a belief that oil companies should police themselves.

On that note, I will simply say again that we are here and we will continue to be here fighting on behalf of people who are counting on us to do the right thing. We remember what it is like for too many families right now whose breadwinner…

I rise to speak on behalf of nearly 1 million people who have lost their jobs, who have now also lost their unemployment insurance benefits because of the extensive obstacles and objections that have been put forward in the Senate to…

I thank you very much. Let me conclude by saying we are moving in the right direction, but we inherited a huge hole. By the way, the folks who created the hole want us to give them more shovels to go back and create another hole, a deeper…

I remember being in the House of Representatives in 1997, I believe, when we voted to balance the budget for the first time in 30 years under President Clinton. It was tough. We had to make tough decisions, but we did that, and we were on…

I thank my friend from New York for those very stirring words about the families he talked with. I think all of us can relate to that, as he was talking about someone from New York each day going to a different city and State to look for…

I was against deficits then when I voted, for the first time in 30 years, to balance the budget. I was against deficits when I supported a different way to go with the largest surpluses created by the policies of President Clinton, when I…

I am 56 . . . and employers are opting for the person with a master's degree--or frankly, someone younger . . . I am a hard worker, intelligent, efficient, trustworthy, honest, dependable and upbeat. Mr. President, these are the folks we…

The question before us is whether we take dollars from a jobs bill, from a Recovery Act, where we are creating jobs right now... We have always viewed the extension of unemployment benefits in times of economic hardship to be an emergency…

We did a small piece in the Recovery Act, but that alone could make a huge difference in creating the market.

We have got to get started doing a few communities or incentivizing something across the country.

Like my friend from Georgia, I rise today also with great pride to strongly support the nomination of Judge Mark Goldsmith, to be a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. I have known Judge Goldsmith for a…