Amidst the troubling picture coming out of the Israeli elections, there was some good news from the Middle East for a change. The Israeli Government announced that it would double the amount of water it sells to Gaza from 5 million to 10…

I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy in permitting me to speak on this, and I would like to express my appreciation to the chair, ranking member, ranking members of the subcommittee and chair. This is, I think, an example of Congress…

23 hours ago, in this Chamber, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was given a large megaphone to undercut American diplomatic attempts at restraining Iran's nuclear ambitions. One has to go back to the days of Gen. Douglas MacArthur…

I will vote for H.R. 529, a bill that would expand section 529 college savings plans, when it passed the House today. I strongly believe in improving access to higher education, and encouraging families to save for college is a critical…

The rhetoric about somehow this is a system that is bankrupt and is not going to be there for our young people I think is bogus.

I do not want to have a broad brush indictment for them not doing anything since 1994.

There is a lot of talk of cliffs here in our Nation's Capital. We have fiscal cliffs that we faced with the debt ceiling. There was the sequestration cliff. We had, obviously, the cliffs surrounding the government shutdown. This week, we…

Kind of a different approach. Here, we roll through, add to the deficit, make tax reform more complicated, and the Republican-controlled Congress has yet, in the entire 50 months that it has been in charge, to have even a hearing on a…

We come today in the midst of a debate at a time when there are wide areas of agreement in this Congress about things that we should do to help improve the country. We all acknowledge the importance of tax reform. Many people in this…

For more than 70 years our government has followed the most spectacular failure in policy since the disastrous 13-year experiment with the prohibition of alcohol. Forty-three years ago, the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse…

The scheduled March 3 invitation by Speaker Boehner to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress is wrong on many levels. It is a deliberate attempt by the Israeli Prime Minister and the Speaker of the House…

One of the areas where Congress has repeatedly come together in a nonpartisan fashion to make real progress has been legislation dealing with the protection of animals. This is something that unites us as we have been able to deal with a…

Thank you, Mr. Scott. Mr. Speaker, this is the 56th time we have gathered on the floor, talking past each other. The legislation that is offered by our Republican friends--a repeal--does not have any alternative. Frankly, everybody knows…

This is the week where the President submits his budget. We are seeing a great deal of conversation about many of the provisions. One area that I am pleased has been greeted with positive reaction is his emphasis on infrastructure, on…

I appreciate your reference to Congress not hollowing out the IRS so that we can actually administer programs.

This is a huge reason why we have lost manufacturing jobs in this country.

I think it would be helpful--it would help every single Member here, and I think we ought to just clear that way.

I appreciate that not all the 14--or the 12 countries are on the same page, environmentally.

Last night for the State of the Union address by President Obama, my guest was a Portlander, Cheryl Strayed, the author of the best-selling book, ``Wild,'' who is currently being portrayed on the big screen by Reese Witherspoon. This epic…

The momentum for an increase in the Federal gas tax continues to build. This weekend's excellent New York Times editorial made the case why the increase is needed and long overdue. Costs of repair increase dramatically the longer they are…

It might be time for us to raise the gas tax and fund our infrastructure.

President Ronald Reagan... made an appeal that when Congress came back he wanted them to more than double the gas tax.

I would argue that there may be something that the panel did not address that is tied to this that actually can have an opportunity to bring people together.

``Each House shall keep a Journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the…

While I do not support the development of tar sands--an environmentally destructive and carbon-intensive process--we should not continue a loophole that lets oil companies off the hook for covering destruction from oil spills. In 1990, we…