Heidi Heitkamp

We are not in a spot where we are a preferred employer anymore.

I think it is important, Mark, too that, you let them know that we are asking.

We do not want to just bring out the stick. We want to know what that carrot is.

We have a big job that has been ignored for 15 years.

When you train together and when you train with a common purpose you achieve culture change.

I do not think you can have culture change without training.

So how do you--Angela, though, I mean, doing all those things----

I think one of the things we really need to focus in on is these particular skills.

I am pleased that Senator Lankford is working with our office and working with me to try and design a bipartisan bill.

Stronger supervisory training is something that I have advocated for since coming on this Committee.

Federal employees are absolutely a critical part of the Federal Government and they make North Dakota and our country a better place to live every single day.

There are proposals that treat Federal employees, I think, in a way that is less than fair.

The grave impact it would have on Federal employees if it were implement, and, consequently, the grave impact it would have on recruitment of Federal employees.

I have felt strongly about improving supervisory training across the Federal Government for some time.

I think it is important that we have a very spirited debate about this, but I think it also is very important that we put it in perspective and that we not exaggerate the results here or the purpose of this bill.

But you would acknowledge that our bill preserves the traditional HMDA data collection on race?

I want to follow up a little bit on HMDA and clarify... nothing in this bill that will be debated next week undermines the Fed's ability to enforce fair lending laws.

I worked with colleagues to introduce legislation to address this barrier for tribes and increase STR resources--the Opioid Response Enhancement Act (S. 2437) with Senator Baldwin.

After all, you know, Al Capone even had to pay taxes, so even if we do not think that this is all legitimate and some of it is nefarious, we need to know what it is.

The last thing that we can afford is a distorted or unproductive market

Members of these communities, our first Americans, deserve to be counted as Americans.

The 2020 Census I think, quite frankly, never mind this issue, is in trouble.

It is so critically important that we get these counts right.

If there are specific legislative requests that you have for that, we need to know, and so we can help work through that process.

Let us quit pretending that 15 years of dispersed jurisdiction here is acceptable and we have to wait longer.