John Hoeven

Is there something the Congress could do that you think would be beneficial in terms of assisting you in what you do?

So it would translate into longer timelines to respond to requests for CBO scoring, studies, and so forth?

The point that Senator Hoeven made about the importance of setting priorities, of deciding what really has to happen

Of the total outlay from TARP, how much of that has been returned?

If you were given a hold-even budget, how would you go about meeting that? What changes would you make?

Some programs you have to prioritize, and some programs merit more resources, and some programs merit less resources, and some programs should be eliminated.

There are two kinds of schools of thought. One school of thought is everybody should take a proportional reduction.

I think we're going to be required to find more savings.

Would you talk about that a little bit?

We're going to be pressed to find additional savings this year compared to the budget that was submitted to us by the President.

I was recently in Egypt and met with the speaker of the parliament and other members of the Freedom and Justice Party, which is actually the Muslim Brotherhood.

We're in challenging times from a budgetary standpoint, and so it's incumbent on all of us to figure out how we reduce the deficit and the debt and get our financial situation in order.

We want a relationship with those countries.

I see that you've requested $10,462,873, of which $462,873 is funding that you have raised.

So this is being done on the five senior Members. Is it your expectation or intention to extend it?

I think that's a requirement when you build it, isn't it?

Among the things we talked about was the possibility of parliament members with the Freedom and Justice Party coming here and possibly interacting with Members of Congress.

I would like to hear from you about how this process worked within your agency.

We have no problem requiring that our companies provide what is in that frack fluid so that people know and it is fully transparent.

That is the kind of thing that does not work for business.

But we have to understand business practices and how they work.

If we want to continue to develop clean coal technology, we've got to have a realistic rule.

Does this new performance standard that you're proposing apply to new plants, only new plants, or does it also apply to existing plants?

Their concern is in regard to the Synthetic Miner Source Rule. Right now we operate under a consent agreement that expires, or the tribe does, excuse me, they're operating under a consent agreement, that expires at the end of July.

And if you'll work with us both in terms of collaborating with States, with the tribes and with industry, I think we can help make that guidance more effective in a way that creates some rules of the road that the industry understands…