I very much wish to thank a great friend and colleague, Senator Blunt, for joining me today on the floor and in leadership on some very important community mental health legislation. We have an opportunity to get something done with this…

I wish to enter into a colloquy with my great friend from Missouri, Senator Blunt. I wish to make a comment, if my colleague will excuse me. I have to say I am amazed to hear that we are court packing when what we are talking about is…

I wish to go back to what the Senator from Missouri has indicated. Our veterans are coming home. We know that at least 200,000 of our veterans coming home will go into the community. I see our distinguished chair of the Senate veterans'…

I ask unanimous consent for 2 additional minutes. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is so ordered.

there are two issues wrapped together right now that are causing dire consequences for people all across the country. The first, as we know and as we have been debating, is the government shutdown and all that has happened in terms of…

we are hearing a lot of discussion right now about the role of government and the role of the public sector. We know there is a minority in the House of Representatives who ran on shutting the government down and think they have achieved…

if I might, just to clarify so that I understand, because the Senator from Texas has, in fact, made the ending of a private sector competitive health care system for up to 30 million Americans part of what he wants to stop, I wanted to be…

not to object, I wish to clarify and ask if we might expand that to indicate the order which I believe we agreed to on the floor; that I be allowed to speak after my two distinguished colleagues, then Senator Whitehouse, and then Senator…

first I apologize for the hoarse voice. I have been recovering from a cold. But it is important for me to have the opportunity to speak on behalf of the people from Michigan about what is happening, as everyone at home is scratching their…

Through the Chair to the Senator from Texas, I am wondering if his motion includes the full funding of the VA medical system, which is a completely government-run, government-controlled health care system?

This time, if we actually default, the fall could be even worse and the damage could be permanent. This is the greatest, wealthiest, most powerful country in the world and it is outrageous that this would even be considered. I ask…

Let me go on and conclude. We heard on the floor earlier from the junior Senator from Texas, who spoke eloquently about the great work being done by the veterans health care system. It is unfortunate that it took a government shutdown for…

we are in day 4 of a tea party Republican shutdown. We need to be very clear as to how we got here. The Senate majority leader negotiated with the Speaker of the House, and after a long negotiation in which the Senate made major…

I ask unanimous consent that the time for morning business, with debate only, be extended until 9:30 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, and that the majority leader be recognized at 9:30 p.m. The…

let me speak for a moment about what we have happening. There is no reason for this happening, and there is absolutely no reason why, first of all, we could not have worked together to put a budget in place. We, months ago, passed a budget…

while I have a moment--I thought that there were others wishing to speak--since there are not, I wanted to take one more moment to speak about something else that is running out today that I am deeply involved in and deeply concerned…

I rise to talk about the relentless assault on the poor and hungry in this country that is being waged right now in the House of Representatives and too often on the Senate floor. The meltdown on Wall Street caused a recession in this…

My friend from Arizona is correct. The Senate has repeatedly voted to end direct payments.

I thank my colleagues who have been patiently waiting. I know there are many Members who wish to speak. I thank my colleague from Arizona.

Yes, that is my intension. I strongly agree we should not be spending taxpayer dollars to fund these direct payment subsidies, and I will do everything I can to make sure the conference committee adopts the Senate version on this issue. I…

I too join with our colleague from Oregon in raising great concern about what this proposal would do. This is a proposal--we have seen, actually, three of them now--that would cut all Federal funding for any community that has either…

I thank my colleague from Arizona for his passion on this issue. Yes, it has been my goal from the beginning of this farm bill process to end unnecessary subsidies and to clean up areas of waste, fraud, and abuse starting with the direct…

In general, I believe that we should seek to streamline our Nation's tax code to grow our economy while making the system fairer and simpler for our families and our businesses.

So I am just saying we ought to take a look at this renewable portfolio, renewable fuel standard, and see if it is still making economic sense, especially since the National Academy of Sciences report indicated it actually increases GHGs.

Well, we are looking forward, in the Agriculture Committee, to getting into this more.