I'm glad the committee will have this opportunity today to dig into the specifics.

That would be the most efficient system and the way to ensure a progressive tax system, in my view.

the waste treatment plant will not be in full operation for another 20 years.

not a single gallon, of high level, radioactive waste has actually been treated.

$19 billion has been spent over the past 25 years to clean up these high level, radioactive wastes at Hanford.

the Hanford site's legacy of failed performance and retaliation against whistleblowers and workers who raised safety concerns is alive and well.

This mission remains as critical as ever, even with CBP now under the Department of Homeland Security.

The point is to try to bring a handful of really well-targeted enforcement actions so that these rip-off artists say, it is a new day out there, that you cannot just brazenly violate the trade laws and expect to get away with it.

If trade cheats evade our laws, domestic businesses are harmed, making our trade remedy laws all but useless in protecting American jobs.

Customs and Border Protection is often our number-one defense against them.

the promise of Social Security was a godsend for millions of older people.

I have fought for years to stop trade in illegally harvested timber.

Across the world, trade cheats are looking for any way they can to break our trade laws and rip off American jobs.

We need to protect these special programs and update them for the times.

I think public trustee oversight over the process is very important.

the longer some try to pretend that Social Security and Medicare are not quickly headed towards insolvency, the more painful the reforms will need to be.

It is important both to get it done now, and to get it done right.

It's about values, and that's why it's so important to get this right.

I want to make sure Senator Casey gets a chance to speak.

it is all about protecting the Medicare guarantee and updating the program.

the program needs to be updated. That is why we have been working in a bipartisan way.

I have made it very clear, and it has been very clear from not only this committee, but also from the intent of Congress, that a much more aggressive and assertive enforcement posture is needed within Customs and Border Protection.

Today, millions of single, elderly women have to walk an economic tightrope each month, balancing the cost of food, health care, and covering the rest of the bills.

Basically, just scofflaws thumbing their nose at U.S. trade law enforcement.

I thought that the previous loophole was just offensive to all the values that the country stands for--this notion that somehow economics trumps human rights and concern for people who have been exploited in the past.