Jon Tester

You need to be regulated, but you are not the ones that caused the problem.

I think the regulators are a bit paranoid at this point in time and they don't want to have any failure on their watch.

Just put them in the mix.

So if the crimes go unpunished, how can we ever get a handle on this?

The issue of law enforcement being on the top of the Department of the Interior's, Secretary Salazar's and President Obama's, right at the top of the list, if not at the top, right at the top, is good to hear.

It is just not acceptable to have different treatment. It is just not.

If you are driving back and you said, if we did this, it is going to decrease the crime rate, do it.

We need to address it and we need to address it in a way that makes sense for Indian Country.

I think it is more than perception. It is reality.

I want to thank Chairman Dorgan for his leadership in this in putting forth this bill that I think is a good step in the right direction.

I know hindsight is 20-20, but if you look at that timeline it is totally ridiculous that it came to this point.

What are they looking for?

I am very proud of the VA. I think they do a great job. I am not proud of them on this one, and I think that it needs to be fixed.

Do you see that the VA is--and by the way I agree with what Senator Burr said, one case is bad--but I want to know where the VA ranks in relationship to the private sector as far as occurrences of screw ups in this particular area.

So your standard is zero tolerance?

What are you doing with those VISNs, just for an example, to get them fired up, get them off their duff and get them going in the right direction; do what they need to do to make sure things happen?

I want to know what steps have been taken so it doesn't happen again.

If the results come back that the private sector is worse than the VA, do not even look at that. That is too low of a bar.

If there is another round, I will wait. If not, I can keep going.

I think you can look at peer review as a punitive mechanism. I think we try to approach it from a viewpoint that is a learning mechanism.

the person who is being the bad guy--who is doing the work that nobody wants to do, pointing out an inadequacy in the system--needs to be guarded against so that retribution does not take place.

I worry about the internal aspects of peer review, the people who are reporting on their colleagues and that they may not want to do that.

I agree with you that it is absolutely critical that you get broad-based participation in the subcommittee.

When we have a crisis like we have had--your own words, 'the biggest since the Great Depression'--why not start with a framework that really will be the kind of framework we need going into the 21st century and beyond?

Should we interpret the support in the Recovery Act as a renewed commitment from this administration to support rural water infrastructure?