Tom Udall

Chairman Akaka has been very aggressive about moving the agenda on bills.

We are a treaty Tribe, having entered into a treaty with the United States on July 1st, 1852.

I think both Navajo and Jicarilla Apache, both have provisions allowing off-reservation leasing.

I hope that through the testimony we hear today, my colleagues on the Committee will, number one, understand the need for flexible and innovative approaches to water management in the arid west.

Senator Bingaman has long been a great advocate of Tribal water legislation and has been persistently diligent in moving this and other important pieces of water legislation through Congress.

I am especially pleased that the Committee will be considering the merits of S. 134, the Mescalero Apache Tribe Leasing Authorization Act.

I think this issue of awareness, I think all of you have talked about raising the awareness level, and we need more education, and we need to start younger.

Does NOCSAE require the helmets have a clearly visible date of manufacture and a date of last reconditioning label?

I would head the ball more aggressively. I would play differently because I thought for some reason, I would like be secure from getting another concussion.

Not only a false sense of security from being protected from the first concussion, but being protected because I just had one, and this will give me this extra layer. And it is incredibly dangerous.

This is not just about helmets, and it is not just about football.

There are 15-g hits that do it. There are 115-g hits that don't, right? And so, if you are taking amount of force that is 115 and you are reducing it to 110 or so--I don't want to get the numbers wrong--because of a mouth guard, you might…

You can see it. There is a diagram, and it says 'creates brain'--I believe specifically it says, 'creates'--what is the term it uses? 'Creates brain safety space.'

I don't know what 'brain safety space' really means. That term--that is little alarming, really.

I know you weren't able to see the one I was holding up, and I think it has been produced down there just in case you see anything else on it you wanted to comment on.

Thank you very much.

What we are talking about is something that is very, very misleading.

I am going to get a really protective helmet for my child.

Riddell has independent, peer-reviewed, published research in the medical journal Neurosurgery, February 2006, showing that Revolution reduces the risk of concussions by 31 percent when compared to traditional helmets.

There is no data in the published medical literature that shows any particular helmet being better than any other at preventing sports concussions.

While we should encourage any innovation to protect young athletes, we need to make sure that advertisers play by the rules.

According to a recent Centers for Disease Control report, emergency room visits for sports and recreation-related traumatic brain injuries increased by 60 percent among children and adolescents over the last decade.

Concussions used to be dismissed as simply 'dings' or 'bell-ringers.' We know now that a concussion is a form of traumatic brain injury that should be taken seriously.

Thank you, Chairman Rockefeller, and thank you for that nice comment.

We must prioritize the health and safety of our athletes.