Roy Blunt

Inflation is an invisible tax that takes its toll on every American.

I want to say to that, Secretary, there is a reason that we had the veterans set aside in some of these areas.

We need to be sure that people understand that. That there are seasonal jobs, where, if you don't have the seasonal workers ready to come in and take the seasonal jobs then the jobs for other people that are full-time, year-round jobs, go…

I had serious concerns that our nation wouldn't return to our pre-pandemic unemployment levels.

Well, I would think some of the overall--this big increase you asked for in the overall budget, maybe there are some ways to justify this $2.2 billion to fill some of those gaps.

I believe we can work together to find consensus on the Department's budget.

Thank you, Chair Murray.

That is a better answer, than we are not going to spend it. What are you planning?

We cannot spend our way out of inflation; instead, we must exercise fiscal responsibility.

I'm alarmed by the potential of widespread loan forgiveness currently under discussion by the administration. It's an illegal, regressive, unfair, and expensive proposal that does nothing to address the real issues with college costs and…

Thank you, Chair. On student loans again, though this would be collecting the student loans, not forgiving the student loans.

As I reflect on my time in Washington, working on behalf of Missourians and our nation, I am proud to say I've strived to strengthen our education programs that provide the most opportunities to every American.

I want to look at what we can do, in a bipartisan way, to prevent another tragedy like this from occurring.

No family should ever suffer the loss of a child in this kind of horrific act of violence.

We provided $111 million for that purpose, which was an increase of $95 million over the previous year.

Even the New York Times editorial board agrees that loan forgiveness is, 'legally dubious, economically unsound, politically fraught, and educationally problematic.'

As I reflect on my time here working on behalf of Missourians and for our country, I am proud to say I have worked to strengthen our education programs that provide the most opportunities to every American.

We need to continue working together to ensure everyone who has a mental or behavioral health issue can get the treatment they need and when they need it.

Do you think you would have the same ability to do those emergency changes if there was a set of Federal guidelines?

As a former election administrator, both as the Secretary of State, and Mr. Wilcox as a local election authority before that.

I am asking that, or if there should be some 'new normal' approval process, now that we have had, I think two vaccines, and 20 treatments developed through those partnerships?

I would encourage that. I think every single home test for COVID comes out of the RADx experience.

You can't have standard care if you are still discovering things that needs to be looked at as an option.

One of the things we were most concerned about 8 years ago was the fact that young researchers were leaving the field.

I think that decision is going to have some pretty long-term consequences, particularly the CMS decision.