Jon Tester

So are you advocating, just to help educate me on this, that this entire budget be mandatory funding?

So the question then that I would ask is, is that, I think your priorities are correct in this budget.

I would expect that you guys will be very transparent in how you're doing business.

Canada is a huge friend of ours, a great trading partner, and the fact is that there is water that flows from United States North, we shouldn't be polluting them, and they shouldn't be polluting us.

I want to thank you and your staff for your work on the Kootenai.

In Montana, for example, it doesn't matter if it's Indian Country or if it's in urban clinics, we need more people.

If we have affordable battery technology, that fixes the problem.

I want to talk a little bit about Butte Basin Creek Watershed.

Does access or reduced access... impact your ability, as the Forest Service Chief, to manage this landscape?

Although sometimes we argue and fight, that is how democracies work, right?

One of my greatest achievements while serving Vermont in the United States Senate has been supporting the U.S. Forest Service in adding well over 100,000,000 acres--more than 25 percent--to the Green Mountain National Forest.

Water literally is life

I appreciate that, and look forward to making sure that that does happen because it is critically important.

I want to thank you for being here. Thank you for your knowledge on this budget, and I appreciate the opportunity.

My advice is to be as aggressive as you possibly can.

I hope we can continue to work on this issue together. I think it is really important.

I mean, we are talking about prescriptive easements, correct.

I won't throw anybody under the bus, then the public really doesn't own those lands anymore.

This is going to be cleaning up a watershed that is really, really important for this region.

I think it is important. I mean, transparency in government is good, and nobody is perfect.

I wouldn't be here talking to you about it in Washington, D.C., in front of a committee that I could beat the hell out of you on a budget, if it wasn't important.

The best habitat in the world is not worth much unless you can get access to it.

If they quit using this war as an opportunity to jack up prices, I think we would see a better situation for the consumers.

The truth is, there is no competition there. And I don't think there is near enough competition in the energy sector.

Our ports in Montana are still operating at reduced hours. We've got supply chain issues in this country.