Ben Ray Luján

I would certainly encourage that in light of the legal obligations still in place that we pursue equitable resolutions from the Department.

the Department has the trust responsibility to the tribes.

over 90 percent of the Jicarilla Apache Nation's government operations are funded with revenues from production of their oil and gas resources.

I think this would be another area where we could seriously consider opportunities.

we have a backlog in construction need of over $2 billion.

I very much agree with your and President Obama's drive to invest in education and research and development and innovation in order to better position our Nation for the future.

I want to thank you for being here... we appreciate the compassion and the passion that you share for our nation...

There are many areas in the country, especially in the West, that we look to to provide some support.

We can obviously see the importance of these projects.

This infrastructure strengthens the backbone of America by making resources available for economies to grow while helping to preserve vital resources like water in a place where it is scarce.

It is economic development for the tribes. We are going to do infrastructure investments with those tribal economies.

It is about... helping economies grow. We want to sustain jobs, also we want to protect those agricultural interests.

In the West, our water resources are precious and the Bureau of Reclamation helps us, especially in New Mexico, to ensure our water is used efficiently.

We need to know why natural gas was cutoff to entire regions of New Mexico.

This hearing is an important first step to ask the tough questions that will allow us to identify and fix problems.

I appreciate the Administration's commitment to research and development and innovation as key to the Nation's economic development.

I applaud those remarks, and I support them strongly, but I would like to hear more about what is actually going to be done in these areas.

Thank you for your commitment to job creation and making America a leader in technology and innovation.

I have started a bipartisan technology transfer caucus to begin to look at ideas and ideals around the Bayh-Dole legislation.

It is not to debate whether one supports or opposes offshore drilling. It is to make sure that we don't let this happen again.

We cannot turn a blind eye on this issue.

The failure of companies who knowingly refused to implement the necessary safeguards to prevent this disaster, and it was a failure of governmental policies and regulators that did not apply the proper oversight.

Congress must take action, do our part to prevent the disasters like this from happening again.

It is in everyone's best interest, including industry, to not let this happen again.

The blowout was not the product of decisions made by a rogue industry or government officials.