Heidi Heitkamp

The role of your agency and of your employees in making that happen will be absolutely critical.

I think you are probably one of the most important offices no one has ever heard of.

If this is not negligence, I do not know what is.

But, you have got to have a response when things get out of control that is not, we used our best judgment. Therefore, we are never negligent.

I think one of the things that disturbs me about that fire is that when you look back, and when I talk to the ranchers who begged the Forest Service not to light that fire...

I think the tribes are strapped for resources. I think they are having a hard time meeting current demand.

If they are simply warehoused, that is unconstitutional and it is inappropriate.

This continues our discussion about what is happening and what we can do to improve conditions for Native American youth, an issue everyone on this Committee, I know, is extraordinarily passionate about.

I think we fail to screen kids very well who go into the system, whether it is fetal alcohol effects, trauma-induced behavior, non-consequential thinking, just a fundamental disparity.

A young officer told me how she knew a couple of kids who would get in trouble just so they would have the stability of being incarcerated for a weekend, where they knew someone would actually listen to them, someone would actually feed…

I understand the need to protect people, but I also understand the need to have some form of small-dollar, short-term lending.

And I want to make one final point on this, which is interesting to me, and that is, where we are deeply concerned about what you have, we should be equally deeply concerned about the cybersecurity of the information where it resides.

I think your personal integrity is unimpeachable.

I think my point is, in terms of your data collection, the only way you would have personally identified data would be if it were necessary to serve the consumer either in a broad complaint or an individual complaint.

I would reiterate Senator Tester's concern about consultation and would be interested in follow-up on consultation with tribes as well.

I cannot think of a more timely topic.

So, it is a lot easier when you control both the fiscal policy and the monetary policy.

I think in a much smaller scale, we are in that same discussion here with the American economy, which is how do we--with sequestration, which is a form of austerity----how do we make those appropriate balances.

Where is the appropriate balance?

The United States and Greece are a tale of two economies.

And as we have heard earlier from earlier testimony on this panel, we are already seeing some of that flow.

You know, there is an old expression, do not go looking for trouble. Trouble will find you.

We must balance fiscal responsibility with economic development.

I think those are all important parts.

The biggest challenge was probably funding and figuring out how to get money in order to make money.