I thank my friend for yielding. It is, and I think should be, the law in this country if you're able- bodied, you can't get welfare unless you work. That became the law in 1996. Last year, two Republican Governors approached the…

Do you think that there is a critical error--shortage of needed workers in the construction field in the United States today?

I am very hopeful and optimistic we will have comprehensive immigration reform this year. Our country needs it.

What Congressman Andrews was essentially purporting is that we should measure risk looking backwards when we know what already happened.

this is a very big deal.

we have two federal policies working at cross purposes.

We claim we want students to take advantage of income contingent repayment, but the gainful employment rule... is I think a pretty contradictory view.

At least, over time, 750,000 people will lose their jobs as a result of the sequester. Who are these Americans? They're Federal employees who inspect our food or who inspect toxic waste dumps or who work in the Federal court system or for…

I thank my friend for his graciousness and fairness in all respects. I'm not sure anyone has control over the United States Senate. But I am sure of this: last week a proposal very similar to the one that I just talked about that would…

A ``no'' vote on the previous question would mean that this body could take an up-or-down vote on whether or not to save these 750,000 jobs while still reducing the deficit in the ways that I just talked about. Look, the basic job that we…

My friend reflected on some criticism of the Senate, which I would generally agree with. I would say this, though: the Senate did something we've not done. They put a Republican plan on the Senate floor to end the sequester and save those…

And we are not going to have a robust recovery if middle-class retirees aren't buying automobiles and refrigerators and taking their family to restaurants and do the things that people can do when they have a decent pension, decent income.