Jon Tester

The problem is whether they are going to do it in time for the next cycle.

I am concerned that we are going to be in the same exact spot next year as we are at this year.

Twelve-point-two million dollars is pile of money.

This hearing is important as we deal with executive compensation for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac consistent with protecting taxpayers, yet keeping these institutions running.

There are folks in this body that want to see Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac done away with so that there is no backstop on the housing.

Would it not have been more prudent just to say, let us take a step back.

Challenges stem from many sources: rural isolation, lack of institutional investment, poor health care, inadequate educational institutions, and in some cases tribes were just cheated out of their opportunities which resulted in what some…

The rates of unemployment and poverty in the vast majority of Indian Country are dramatically higher than the rest of the Nation.

Like many in this body, economic development and job creation are my top priority, and they are important in every American community, and Indian Country is no exception.

If you have a servicemember in theater in very stressful conditions, the last thing you want is to have their head back at home thinking about a house that is being foreclosed on.

It starts with a sense of ownership and obligation to those servicemembers and that is what is at the center of our commitments.

I think ultimately in the end we need to have the people here so we can get to the bottom of why those bonuses were given out and get some accountability.

The only way you solve problems around this place is to talk and to discuss and to negotiate

I can commit to you today that I would be happy to be the person heading the Federal water rights team.

We can't continue to keep saying no. What we have to do is try to find ways we can say yes.

Well, your recommendations shouldn't be a moving target, though.

If we get this water settlement through, and no matter how that $35 million is spent, you understand better than anybody in this room what kind of benefit it is going to be to the Blackfeet people.

We need somebody in the Department that is going to sit down and negotiate in good faith with the Tribe and with us.

It is a very important bill to the folks with the Blackfeet Tribe there in Montana.

I have a lot of respect for you. I think you are a good guy.

The objections to be heard for the first time by these guys in the last 24 hours is totally unacceptable

We agreed wholeheartedly with Senator Tester's observation about the importance of economic development on the Indian reservations in Montana in general, and on the Blackfeet Reservation specifically.

If the Department's right on that, we need to get that fixed because the settlement is exactly what it is.

Why are we holding Blackfeet to a higher standard than we hold some of the other water settlements to?

I think any company that has a subsidiary that is doing business with Iran, we need to shine some sunlight on that