Jon Tester

I could not agree with you all three more.

There must be some middle ground there, where we can stop the fleecers but yet allow the bona fide companies to really grow

I look forward to hearing from you folks this morning about the potential startups to create jobs and spur economic growth and innovation, provided that they have an essential resource for growth, and that resource is access to capital.

It is apparent to me--and I would like to get your opinion on this--that some of the same guys that we bailed out in the interest of stabilizing the markets are the ones who have made the housing market far worse than it has to be.

Real quickly, I think we all understand we have a fiscal problem in this country. We can keep kicking the can down the road forever.

Your legislation will help address some of the key barriers in our industry.

We strongly support the legislation you recently introduced with Senators Murkowski and Reid.

Thank you for your leadership on energy efficiency issues.

We want the very best. If we are going to break the cycle of poverty, that is what has to happen.

If we are going to achieve excellence, we need more demanded of us.

I do not want our Native American kids to get a second class education.

Indian students will be successful when they get three things--good schools, good motivated teachers and families who support their students.

I think we can all agree that except for pointing out the achievement gap, NCLB hasn't worked all that well in Indian country and we can do better.

Education is the key to improving life in Indian country. Education represents hope in a place where we need more hope.

I think they are critically important.

Is that 30-year fixed-rate mortgage offered in small towns and rural areas if you let it controlled by the four or five largest banks.

It is not an easy situation, but the fact is that with input from folks like you all, I think that we can get around it.

I will yield to the Senator from Rhode Island, and then I will make my statement. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Rhode Island.

I look at the pictures going up and down the Missouri right now, is that a lot of those levees that were meant to keep water away from people are now keeping water on people.

But I think there is also agreement we want to take the taxpayers off the hook, and I am not sure we are doing that.

The ultimate goal here, though, is to get everybody involved in the program that we can get involved in the program, right?

I do not want to do that. Maybe I will back up. I thought that was the proposal.

We need every closing in sight in terms of trying to revive this economy and the real estate sector in particular

The errors and omissions here are so huge that the cost runs so high that it puts communities in rural America that are not exactly affluent in real problems with flood insurance.

Levee certification, it is a difficult problem.