Cory Booker

the focus should be on our children, on parents, and on the performance, ultimately, of those schools.

I am thrilled that we are potentially making impactful investment as a Congress within this program.

If we are going to deny the right for Washingtonians to choose their own destiny and design a program, let us do everything within this program to give poor kids choice of quality options.

it is about good schools.

I do not understand how you can design a scholarship program that says some of your kids get about $28,000 per child and then another system gets only $12,000 per child.

there is too much vilification, in my opinion, in this movement, especially around Teachers' Unions.

it is, in my opinion, outrageous that they do not have more representation in this body.

we are too focused in on creating an enemy and not nearly focused enough on what needs to get done.

The fact that we believe that public education should be diverse and allow poor kids to have choice, to me, that is something I have been fighting for my entire career.

So, if Kevin's work was able to address the accreditation issues, which he is addressing, so we have more transparency into what is going on in those schools...

as the Senate votes today on a short-term extension of the highway trust fund and an extension of the deadline for positive train control, I rise to discuss the importance of transportation safety and the need for vigorous oversight as…

I really want to see more focus on unlicensed spectrum.

I think it is on very strong legal grounds.

I just believe that we should be focused on safety first and security, but I do believe that there should be more done.

today I would like to recognize MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, the leadership of its founders, Geoffrey T. Boisi and Raymond G. Chambers, and the expansion of the mentoring field in the past quarter century. This year, MENTOR…

I'm very concerned, because, in my state especially, pipelines--pipeline problems could have catastrophic consequences.

These incidents are worrisome. I look forward to hearing from the NTSB and GAO on what steps we should be doing.

Thank you very much, Senator Fischer. It's an honor to continue to be your Ranking Member on this very important committee.

I'm troubled by the fact that extremely dangerous materials are travelling through communities every day.

And so, in many ways, that's why we're here, is to make sure that we're doing everything we can to prevent something going wrong.

I'm just really concerned with the most densely populated state in the Nation, lots of populations, any problems, you know, virtually will cause serious consequences.

Are there other things that we should be thinking about with this reauthorization, in terms of closing the gap on that response time?

While PHMSA has made substantial progress on pipeline safety, there--more has to be done.

So, more reporting----

Today is a great opportunity to assess where we are and to consider what steps we could be using to go forward.