Bob Menendez

I believe that, in the short run, investments in infrastructure make a lot of sense.

It's amazing to me that anonymous, nameless, faceless individuals on a website can drive that type of story into the mainstream.

Well, I was in a big travel schedule in 2010 as the chair of DSCC, plus my own campaign, getting ready for a re-election cycle. In the process of all of that, it unfortunately fell through the cracks that our processes didn't catch moving…

I have always advocated for issues and I have advocated for policies, and that's what I have done across the board.

The bottom line is, when it came to my attention, I paid for it.

When it came to my attention that payment had not taken place, I personally paid for them in order to meet my obligation.

The smears that right-wing blogs have been pushing since the election and that is totally unsubstantiated.

Menendez, who was set to become chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has denied allegations Melgan helped him obtain the services of prostitutes in the Dominican Republic.

I think that there are several takeaways here that are incredibly important.

They should have never been sent in there without a military guard.

I think another tragedy could happen in another war zone around the world.

A lot has been said about resources here. Secretary Gates used to famously argue that there are more people in military bands than in the entire Foreign Service.

My understanding is that the discussion of the location of Mission Benghazi was an ongoing one.

The tragic events that occurred in Benghazi on September the 11th and the lessons we need to learn from that event

Reserving the right to object--I am not going to object, but I would like to amend the request so that I would be recognized after him.

The reality is, I think some of these amendments on the floor that were offered are miserly, to say the least, a moment of national imperative, and do not have not only the spirit of the season but do not have the spirit of what America is…

For them, the choice between opening or not opening may very well depend upon a CDBG program that they can depend upon once standards are set.

Do you think that the region's transit system could possibly be rebuilt and protected with less than a third of the funds the Administration requested?

Of course, we should rebuild to protect against future storms.

What are the consequences of not having the resources under which you would make those decisions?

So, in essence, it is more fiscally prudent to do the mitigation than to just replace as it was and wait for the next storm and repay all over again?

Now, some of our colleagues seem to think that any attempt to rebuild our transit systems with an eye toward mitigation and making them stronger for the future is a waste of money.

That amount would not even cover the recovery estimates that we currently have, much less get to any of the necessary mitigation investments that have been requested under the President's budget.

If we cannot get New York and New Jersey workers and businesses back to the pre-storm pace in terms of economic recovery, I think we are going to see our economic recovery slow down instead of moving forward.

This really needs to be done in a coordinated fashion that bridges all of the local players, all of the local agencies, State and local government to make sure that the impacts of Hurricane Sandy do not repeat themselves.