we continue to watch fuel costs skyrocket--shockingly so in the last 3 months--as the average price of a gallon of gasoline breaks records again and again for this time of year. Today, the national average, when I last checked, was $3.91…

I regret that. I hope we can negotiate on both sides of the aisle so amendments such as this can be offered. To set benchmarks, we could use an additional 3 million barrels of oil per day and 10 billion additional cubic feet of natural gas…

on Friday of this week 2 years will have passed since President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. This is actually a sad anniversary because more than enough time has gone by to reveal the failures of…

It's important also to note that the Afghans have suffered nearly as many casualties as we have from the same kind of threat.

It strikes me that that is a very high number of green-on-blue attacks.

Dr. Miller and General Allen, how capable are current graduates of our training programs in Afghanistan?

I rise to speak on the second-year anniversary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care law. I will be joined shortly by a few of my colleagues. I ask unanimous consent that at that point we engage in a colloquy. The ACTING PRESIDENT…

Dr. Miller and General Allen, are applicants literate and willing to learn?

So the promise was not to touch Medicare, and that promise has not been fulfilled. The promise was to reduce the deficit, and that turned out to be an empty promise. Also, we were told by the President and by Speaker Pelosi this bill would…

let me ask my colleagues about another promise. They will call time on us soon. Does anybody recall hearing this statement from the President of the United States in 2009? He said this: If you like your health care plan, you will be able…

I know our friend from South Dakota has joined us and is eager to join in this discussion. I wonder if he has anything to add about the broken promises that were made during the passage of ObamaCare. Mr. McCAIN. Before that, the whole…

If I could jump in on the issue of Medicare because I have a quote here from President Obama, July 29, 2009: ``Medicare is a government program, but do not worry, I am not going touch it.'' As a matter of fact, only months later he signed…

So do you think they've tapered off?

What is your current assessment of the insider threat facing troops in Afghanistan from rogue elements and individuals in the Afghan security forces?

It would be good to have the success stories. I'm afraid I'm asking you for a pretty detailed answer on the record, though, as far as the incidents since 2007, as far as when they occurred, because I'd like to review for myself and see if…

I believe robust recruit screening by the Afghan security forces could have helped avoid the tragic death of this brave young man.

So it's in all our interests to be able to sense the presence of extremists in the ranks and be able to deal with them when we do.

are we in morning business? The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. We are. ____________________

to summarize what the Senator from Arizona has just said, the CLASS Act was sold to the American people as a budget deficit reducer. It was going to reduce the deficit. No sooner was it signed and they started looking at it that the…

What steps will you take to ensure that the Afghans do not either intentionally or unintentionally release this individual, and will your team at ISAF headquarters keep me updated in writing on the latest developments on the Afghan…

The Coast Guard's program of record maintains that 8 national security cutters are the minimum required to replace the 12 aging high-endurance cutters.

And just to reiterate, to do the mission of the 12 older cutters, we need the 8 NSC cutters?

if anything, we probably need additional cutters, if we could afford them.

I have toured the cutter Number 3 a few months ago. It was very, very impressive.

I would point out for the record that the National Institute of Undersea Science Technology researchers were the first on the scene during the Gulf oil spill.