The last 40 years of Earth Day represent some of my personal highest hopes, fondest dreams, and greatest frustrations about the environment. At times we have watched retreat, denial, and in some cases destruction. But we have also seen…

I rise in strong support of this outstanding piece of legislation. The National Estuary Program has been funding work around the country for 20 years to monitor and restore estuaries of national significance. It is really, I think…

Well, it's been 72 hours since health care reform was passed and, as near as I can tell, nobody has to go to the post office to get their prostate checked. They're not getting mammograms in the DMV, and we aren't herding doctors to gulags…

There is a certain amount of irony hearing our friends on the other side of the aisle talking about a recovery package that hasn't worked as well as all of us would like because it was deliberately scaled down in an effort to try to secure…

These provisions will affect companies in a small number of countries--there are less than 10 percent of the countries that don't have a tax treaty with us--they will be encouraged to have a relationship to avoid tax avoidance. It will be…

Today's victory for health care reform and coverage for 32 million Americans is not just the culmination of 15 months of hard work in this Congress. It represents the historic accomplishments sought by Presidents and Members of Congress…

Today we have an historic opportunity, more than a century after President Teddy Roosevelt first raised this subject, to establish the foundation for health care reform. We have some of finest health care in the world, but for too many…

I just heard my friend from Texas talk about demonizing the Canadian system and calling it socialized medicine. It's really kind of ironic. First of all, Canada has basically Medicare for all. It is a government-funded insurance program…

For those who can afford it, they have some of the best health care in the world. But Americans, overall, by any objective measure of performance, like life expectancy, or how soon babies die, we don't perform very well. And increasingly…

This has been a particularly difficult period of time for all of us as we witnessed the victims of these two enormous tragedies attempt to repair the devastation that resulted from two of the largest earthquakes that we have seen in recent…

I continue to have profound reservations about our troop commitments, first in Iraq and more recently with President Obama's decision to escalate our presence in Afghanistan. History suggests we will not be successful in stabilizing…

I would conclude by just saying that I do appreciate the rapid response of the committee, the bipartisan support, to honor the generosity of Americans in both these tragedies, to clean up the legislation and move it forward. But I hope…

This piece of legislation is, sadly, a product of our time with a breakdown with our friends on the other side of the Capitol seemingly unable to proceed with regular order. We saw, sadly, this last week one person bring the transportation…

It's kind of ironic that our friend from California got up and talked about why we don't do what Ronald Reagan and President Kennedy would have done. We've done that. We've cut taxes. We cut taxes several times before that. In fact, his…

The bill includes $77 billion of transportation funding. That was my reference. I think the experts agree that it would be hundreds of thousands of jobs, if not 1 million, saved or created with that transportation funding.

What I said, and I want to be clear if I misrepresented it, is that the $77 billion in transportation funding will protect or create hundreds of thousands of jobs. That's what I said.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to follow my dear friend from Ohio with whom I look forward to the day when we can come to this floor and we can deal with a broad-based approach to renew and to rebuild America. That is how we…

I strongly support H. Res. 1097, Supporting the goals and ideals of National Engineers Week. Throughout my career at the local, State and Federal level, I have worked with engineers in Oregon and around the country on some of the world's…

In 2001, I voted against the USA PATRIOT Act because it granted law enforcement powers too broad, too removed from oversight, and at the expense of Americans' civil rights. I am disappointed that H.R. 3961 simply extends three of these…

I find this hearing a little encouraging because I think we are fast approaching the same situation relative to the deficit and spending as we are, for instance, in health care.

As we are overcome with grief and sympathy for the Haitian tragedy, I am reminded of the devastation I saw in Indonesia in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, where over 160,000 people were killed. That disaster inspired cooperation that…

We commemorate extraordinary people and events on the floor of this House. Madam Speaker, there's no more extraordinary person that I have known than Dr. Dennis West. To everybody he was just ``Denny.'' No pretension, low-key, insightful…

I voted against the balanced budget agreement because I didn't think it was real. And I am sorry that the Republicans gave back all the savings when they were in charge.

This is reminiscent to me of what we heard when it was argued that we shouldn't increase the minimum wage.

I was very impressed with the track record of IBM as being creative, promoting wellness.