the potential for default actually cost taxpayers money.

if you have availability but not affordability, you do not have availability.

I must note here, if I may, Mr. Chairman, to take an extra moment and note, however, our ability to do that--to enforce sanctions, to stop sanctions invaders--is being hampered significantly by the shutdown.

I sincerely hope that the shutdown ends soon so that we are truly able to do so in the runup and as these negotiations proceed.

A shutdown of Government in the United States is not a shutdown of American interests and obligations abroad.

we are at the verge of the midnight hour here, and what is playing out is a challenge to the very essence of our government, and it is a challenge both at home and abroad. I will speak to that in a moment. I was in the other body, in the…

I had hoped we would not get to this point. I believe that where I was headed is to embody why we have come to this moment today. It just did not happen. I was referring to this article by Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine that in…

This is a battle within the Republican party itself about where they are headed. It is a battle that is totally unnecessary because I think there is a simple message to the Speaker: Allow the House of Representatives to have an up-or-down…

I do not think that, personally, from my perspective, that is still not possible in the world in which we live in.

the TRIA backstop is critical to inducing those workers' compensation carriers to, in fact, provide that cover.

I have been a strong advocate of, because, really, after September 11, we had a disruption in the marketplace.

In your 2013 Terrorism Risk Insurance Report, you predict that without a Federal backstop, the cost of terrorism insurance would rise for areas with concentrations of people or economic assets.