This has been an issue that plagues us, because of the number of regulations that we have and the number of agencies that are creating them.

Let us keep the dialogue going as we try to work this out.

Has that happened to you all, where there has been a challenge to be able to step back and say, 'We have to fix the statute because we asked them, the regulators, to do something that will be so expensive or so onerous that we are going to…

So your committee has the ability--they propose the rule, go through the final language, the committee has the conversation.

I fixed that, and was a part of helping getting that resolved.

That would be very helpful.

The court, actually, for the first time, went to the President and said, no, the President does not have the constitutional authority to be able to do this.

I would be very interested in anything else you want to contribute to the record.

The onus to improve the rulemaking process is not just on the regulators. As legislators, we must fulfill our responsibility to actually legislate.

Many States, like Connecticut, North Dakota, actively review State regulations to ensure they follow legislative intent.

Several years ago, the House of Representatives was frustrated with the President--and I can fill in the blanks on this--basically not applying the law as they saw that had been written and done.

So I have to ask the question, you said the relationships have been pretty consistent. Is that consistently bad or consistently good?

Strong and effective legislative oversight does not mean stopping agencies from issuing rules and it does not mean we must have an adversarial relationship with the regulators.

There is no State better than North Dakota, is what you are saying.

I rise to speak to the Senate about the nominee that is currently in front of this body and on whom we should vote in the next few hours. We just finished a cloture vote to actually start 30 hours of debate. In the past, we wouldn't have…

The court has the responsibility in law to define what the law says. You are actually saying, no, this is what the law says and you are not following it as a regulation.

the political stars have to line up so that the President is of the same party

I think everything we can do within this Committee to deal with the staggering statistics that all of us share...

How do we fix this problem? Because for years, there has been this conversation about fixing it.

We have Federal properties that we have had empty for more than a decade in trying to figure out what to do with them.

We desperately need someone to be able to help us work that process out.

I am not opposed to research, and I am grateful every time I pick up my cell phone or visit a doctor's office for research in the past.

I do not think we do, and it is one area that we want to be able to work together.

That actually exists in the commercial marketplace.

Science that is paid for by the Federal tax dollars should not be then retained by individuals saying, 'I am going to hang onto that.'