Thad Cochran

I am disappointed in that. For example, my State has the highest percentage of students who qualify for the benefits of the title I program.

It is our obligation to review the request and consider the opinions of those who are involved in education.

Thank you very much.

I think the Secretary has done a great job in presenting the budget request and answering our questions.

I hope that we can see funding directed to programs like that so that we can continue to see progress that can be made.

We found in our State that bringing all these programs together in one location certainly helps a lot, particular to the very young, those who haven't started elementary school.

The budget includes a very critical increase of nearly $1 billion for the NIH.

The years 0 to 5 are at least as important as the years that children spend in kindergarten through the 12th grade.

When American families are struggling to make every dollar count we need to be just as vigilant in how we spend their money.

The budget makes a historic investment in fighting healthcare fraud.

We look forward to working with you to maintain our commitment to fiscal restraint while providing much needed increases for high-priority programs.

We look forward to working with you to support our Nation's investment in healthcare, social services programs, medical research, and disease prevention.

I am pleased that your budget includes a $1 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health.

We especially appreciate your visit to Mississippi.

What is the justification for continuing to collect these funds from Mississippi when DOE has now decided to terminate the national repository program?

We're going to have to accommodate those ships at gulf coast ports.

I'm hopeful that we can work with you and General Van Antwerp and others in the Federal agencies and the Corps of Engineers to try to identify some of these opportunities.

The reason this has taken on a new urgency is that just this morning, we received word that unemployment in the State of Mississippi has reached 12 percent.

I am concerned about the utility ratepayers of Mississippi who have contributed to the nuclear waste fund.

I have been waiting for a year for a report on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, specifically on the Mississippi site for expansion, and I have yet to receive any word from the Department.

I share that enthusiasm and commit to you our best efforts here in this subcommittee to identify how we can invest the public funds so that we achieve those goals.

Madam Chairwoman, thank you for your leadership in this subcommittee.

Manufactured housing production has dropped to an annual rate of fewer than 50,000 homes, compared to nearly 400,000 units in 1998.

Health is also an important factor in global stability and security.

I wish we had more time to go into questions and discussions, but I think you can be assured that we take everybody's testimony seriously.