Jon Tester

Without this settlement, as with all settlements, there is going to be a lot of lawsuits. Nobody wins when there are lawsuits.

I urge this Committee to allow for ongoing negotiations to occur prior to advancing S. 1911.

We have an opportunity to invest in tribal infrastructure. We have an opportunity to invest in economic development.

I am incredibly pleased to see the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Tribes' water settlement before this Committee.

The Fort Belknap Indian Community has been working toward this moment for over a century.

It really does take a real leader to hammer out water rights, and it takes a leader to be able to unite a community behind it.

We must work together to address the challenges facing Indian Country.

I would be hard to disagree with Ranking Member as the taxpayers are subsidizing some of the big businesses so they can be competitive.

I have fought for, and we got targeted relief for local communities and States.

Isn't that similar to what we are talking about with the debt limit?

It's Mitch McConnell saying we're not going to give any votes so that indicates to me maybe Mitch McConnell wants to do away with the filibuster.

This is very irresponsible for the Republicans to do what they're doing right now and quite frankly, it's occupying time.

I don't think that's why the American people sent us to Washington, D.C., to intentionally screw things up, and I would just ask the Republicans to do what's right.

There's nothing that compares to a self-inflicted wound like increasing the interest on your debt for every family in America, which is what would happen if we don't pay our debts.

We always do this effing dance.

This Chris is going to do bad things to this country. China has been trying to set themselves up as a leader in the world economically. This is like giving them the keys to the car. Here you go China. Take it and run with it.

This is -- the money has already been spent. And now, we have to pay the bills.

We always do this effing dance. I don`t know if people are going to put their sane mind on -- sane minds on and do what needs to be done or shut it down. This is just a ridiculous exercise. I can`t even compare it to anything I do on the…

Well, that`s correct. And we need 60 votes to pass the debt ceiling. And quite honestly, Mitch McConnell has been here long enough. He knows the rules as well as anybody and better than most, that if we don`t get some Republican votes to…

I think that if we`re able to get everybody in the room and their opinions are respected, and we actually do compromise, negotiate, we can come up with a deal that does good work for this nation.

We work for them. And I think part of our job is making sure we pay for the bills. And if we don`t pay for the bills, then bad things happen just like they do in our households.

We go through this dance all the time and it’s a dance that’s very, very dangerous.

COVID-19 has only underscored the importance of addressing our housing challenges and the important work that you are nominated to do at HUD.

I am still shaken to the core by what has happened there, and the lack of any sort of investigation to find out what has happened so this will not happen again.

I think the overwhelming majority of this is criminal activity as opposed to just individual-level fraud and abuse.