I believe EPA has now delegated to the State of Oregon responsibility for enforcing that part of the Clean Water Act.

I appreciate the work of the EPA on helping to establish an appropriate testing regime for cryptosporidium.

I rise to continue the debate on this set of rule proposals, but specifically to talk about the talking filibuster. There is one scene from an American movie that captures everyone's attention, and that is the scene of Jimmy Stewart here…

I want to correct the record on something that has been said on the other side of the aisle; that is, the abuse of the filibuster has been a response to filling the tree. In the last 2 years, we had the tree filled once. We had 33…

I thank my colleague from New Mexico for his leadership on the constitutional option. Some may ponder how it is that we have come to have this constitutional argument at this moment. As he has noted, under the Constitution, this body is…

It is quite a contrast that the Senator is drawing between an era in which in a 2-week period the bulk of the team was in place, ready to do the work they were elected by the people to do--the executive branch, headed by the President, had…

So if I might explain, if there is something critical to my State, the talking filibuster enables me to find a couple of other Senators who share my views. Perhaps they have similar issues in their States. For example, the citizens of…

I will tell you, as a red-blooded American, the idea of foreign companies secretly influencing American elections is outrageous, and we should have had a debate on that bill. But, instead, we had 41 Senators who said they wanted further…

I think what the Senator from New Mexico has set forward is that we would save 28 hours on each nomination. If the Senate goes around the clock, that is a bit more than a day. If we are doing 10-hour days, that is almost 3 days. We save 3…

it has been the tradition of this Chamber, when there are rules proposals, to put them on the floor for debate and to hold that debate. Then if the body does not like that, either to defeat them outright or to table them or refer them to…

a supermajority of the Senate, after 1 week of debate, is required just to get to the point where we might start debate on the bill, and the Senate wastes weeks and weeks debating whether to debate rather than doing the people's business…

I had an amendment I wanted to present that would have taken some of the money in that bill that was being spent in a fashion which created very few jobs and to spend it in a fashion which would create a lot of jobs. I had another proposal…

Well, certainly I will tell you that Senator Byrd stood on this floor and said the Senate cannot be bound by the dead hand of the past. You can imagine that any particularly bizarre rule that might have been passed by our predecessors that…

If a colleague is going to place a hold, they are going to do so in a public and accountable fashion and that would greatly improve the quality of ballot. I have been in the position of trying to get help for the Klamath Basin in Oregon…

This provision about a talking filibuster says rather than having a situation where a Senator objects to a majority vote and then we delay the work of the Senate for a week, though nobody is here explaining their position to the American…

the Senator from New Mexico is telling me it has become a common practice on the floor of the Senate for an individual Senator who wants to oppose something to not have the courage to stand here and tell the world their position but…

It is not only secret to the public, it is often secret to fellow Senators, greatly complicating our effort to dialog with fellow Senators as to why we are pursuing something and get their partnership in it.

I would certainly like to thank Senator Harkin for the many years he has pursued reforming the rules of the Senate, especially from the perspective of being in the minority and then maintaining that same effort in the majority. I believe…

The reason I am rising to talk about rules is because we are at the start of a new 2-year period for Congress. This is the appropriate time to be considering how well the Senate is working and whether we should amend the rules by which the…

There are many, many approaches other than a short-term transfer onto the working Americans of health care costs.

So let me press that a little bit because the problem seems to be...

I just want to share with you that, as I do my every county townhalls, it comes up time and time again that these school districts, they cannot even track the opportunities available let alone apply for them.

I am delighted to see... the funding of low-cost loans for energy renovations.

the employment goals also are impacted by the ability of us to sell our products overseas.

I just wanted to get your thoughts on that.