Heidi Heitkamp

What we have done in the past clearly has not worked.

We cannot continue to air drop in resources erratically when suicides spike in Indian communities and turn around and abandon those communities when patchwork funding runs out.

I can tell you stories of children who have been involved in anti-suicide programs who have been model children who later committed suicide.

I do not think anyone here thinks that suicide is anything other than a symptom of what are clearly conditions that many children on the reservation and in Indian Country exist in, creating stress.

We cannot simply say 'we share your concern.' It is not enough any longer for the Federal Government to say we share the concerns of all the tribal entities and all the tribal families and all the tribal parents who are losing the next…

What they lack is a sustainable funding source. These efforts are at the heart of the trust responsibility our government holds with tribal nations.

It is our responsibility to ensure that every child has the opportunity to thrive.

Unfortunately, this year it seems like we can provide more money for defense budgets but we cannot put more money into saving lives of Native youth.

If we keep doing what we are doing right now and do everything the way we have done it and we are all here in ten years, do you think we have a better result?

I think if you looked at the chart that Senator Ernst just showed you, you would see is a partnership with State Governments.

So, we are not just talking about blender pumps and all of those issues, the infrastructure issues and what that means.

I think it is worth noting that it is likely because three commercial scale refineries came online in 2014 and one more is slated for the end of this year.

I think it is really important that we understand a little bit better on how you consider imports in the equation when you are developing RVOs.

You cannot bootstrap the domestic supply language to deal with refueling infrastructure.

I am a strong supporter of truly 'all of the above' energy policy security.

I wish there was no question over the management of the RFS or the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to implement the RFS as Congress intended.

Let us use products that are renewable. Let us use green products.

I think that when we are trying to create a program that meets the goals established by Congress, whether people on this panel agree with the program or not...

At a time when we are shutting down domestic supply of biodiesel, we are importing from Argentina, and that makes no sense to us.

You should look to the legislative history. That is what lawyers do. That is what judges do.

I do not think we know what volumes of cellulosic ethanol can be produced because we have not given the market certainty, and so we have stalled out investment.

This uncertainty and lack of predictability is costing us investments. It is costing us environmentally and it is costing us jobs.

I want to just for a moment talk a little bit about the process that you went through, and I was, quite honestly, shocked when you came to my office.

This is not an issue of politics. It is not an issue of, 'gotcha.' We are just trying to figure this out.

Without having a broad scan, it is very hard to kind of figure out where the low-hanging fruit is.