Jon Tester

There is no doubt that the payment that those AGs are going to get is going to go to those States.

I wish to thank the Senator from Alaska for his explanation of what has been going on as far as executive compensation with FHFA. Amendment No. 1492 to Amendment No. 1470

I think a lot of times we use contractors to be subcontractors--I mean, to be general contracts and we could be doing that and getting more efficiency from the dollar.

That responsibility has been abandoned and that trust with the people for whom we serve has been broken.

It is not only about honoring and taking care of those who wear the uniform, it is about being there for the families during their time of loss.

I said it was a black eye that needed to be made right.

Almost every contract that is investigated into, there is waste, fraud, and abuse.

We just passed the SAVE Native American Women Act out of this Committee.

Were there things in the Recovery Act that we should apply to other pieces of legislation?

So how do we enhance whistleblowers to come forward? Any ideas?

I appreciate your work that you have done on cutting waste, fraud, and abuse during your tenure here.

And as a regulator, it would restrict your ability to meet the needs of the marketplace, I would assume.

And does the SEC have the authority to decrease that limit if they feel it is appropriate?

Real quick--I am over time--some have suggested that this limitation should be capped.

I appreciate you holding this important hearing to examine the proposals before the Committee and their potential to create jobs and spur economic growth and spur innovation.

Some have suggested that increasing the exemption through this legislation and requiring the SEC to report periodically on the need to adjust the limitation would somehow provide the SEC with an unlimited or open-ended authority to…

The critical component of achieving the goals that I talked about is ensuring that small businesses have access to capital, that they need to grow and create jobs.

Our schedules ought to be online. We should be letting people know everything that they should reasonably know online.

I think that it is critically important that we operate in a way that is totally clean.

I think that it is very difficult to take a look at ourselves and say, 'You know what? People think we are crooked.'

I assume, Senator Begich, you are on my bill to make sure that campaign disclosures are filed electronically?

I happen to think that Shinseki is the best VA Secretary we have ever had.

I do not think any of us around here think the VA are bad people. They are doing the best I think they can do but there are some areas they can do better.

I want to talk about peer-to-peer for a second and vet-to-vet.

Thank you, Madam Chairman, and I want to thank you and Senator Burr for convening this hearing today.