Jon Tester

We want to meet an agreement soon. But we are supportive.

So there needs to be an education process?

It is an important piece of legislation, because water is the foundation of life, particularly in rural communities.

I want to repeat, thank you, thank you to the folks who testified today.

$35 million is more than Montana has ever been asked to contribute before.

Assuming we get this bill through sooner rather than later, do you have a plan to educate folks on what this bill does?

It is important that as communities, we work together to solve our problems rather than fighting with one another.

Montana has the same position as the Blackfeet Tribe, which is that we do support Pondera's request.

I believe we all want to resolve our water rights issues in an expeditious manner.

They did such a good job that the State legislature ratified this compact in 2009, when they last met.

Thank you very much. Appreciate both your testimonies.

Where is the Governor in support of this bill?

Thank you for your leadership on a number of things, including this.

We believe reflects the benefits that we have sought and that we believe is a fair amount, yes.

We remain committed to that open dialogue. We do want to address their concerns.

We are very appreciative of all of the work that you have done on all the Indian water rights settlements that have come up from Montana.

It has been the policy in Montana and the United States to negotiate rather than litigate water rights.

The G-20 met recently and they set up a timeframe for deficit reduction.

Ultimately, we are going to have to make some tough decisions.

I want to step back to some questions that were asked earlier, and you said--I think it was in response to Chairman Dodd.

I rise today in strong support of the Wall Street reform conference report. The Senate will make history when we pass this legislation that finally holds Wall Street accountable and finally cleans up the schemes and abuses that nearly…

Disability claims filed by Guardsmen have a 14 percent rejection rate, compared to a 5 percent rejection rate for active duty claims.

It takes a great deal of time to get new claims processors trained and contributing.

The number of claims exceeding 125 days in review is up. The accuracy of the claims is down.

I hear them tell me that they fear the VA is trying to outlive them.