So in Oregon, we sought to try to break some new ground here in terms of trying to define different relationships between law enforcement and mental health.

That's why this committee, working in conjunction with others including HELP and Judiciary, must develop a fresh approach for protecting and caring for Americans with mental illness.

I have been really struck by how negative perceptions about serious mental illnesses are actually growing.

according to the Forest Service--and we checked with them this morning--there is right now an 11,000-acre fire burning in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. This is just April, not the time when one normally thinks you are going to…

I ask unanimous consent that Kelsey Avery, Leigh Stuckhardt, Matthew Fuentes, and Luke Alo, fellows for the Senate Finance Committee, and Julia Bradley-Cook, Ryan Matheny, and Katherine Tsantiris, fellows in my personal office, be granted…

Because of the lack of appropriate places to meet the needs of those with these mental health challenges, we so often have patients boarded in emergency rooms or in fights with police.

The Finance Committee is responsible for the programs--Medicare and Medicaid--that spend more on mental health than any others in America.

I see an enormous opportunity to modernize the code and strip out a lot of that unfairness by radically simplifying our system of depreciation.

We thank Chairman Orrin Hatch and Ranking Member Ron Wyden for holding this hearing.

The code is punishing to those who don't have a team of accountants and the luxury of time to plan investments around taxes.

Any kind of simplification would be welcomed by business owners.

For me, the ballgame here is small business. That is where you have most of the jobs in America.

It seems to me there are really two tax codes in America.

You make the decision and kind of keep your fingers crossed.

if you own a small business in America today, often you go to bed at night believing that you are in danger of being ensnared by an outdated, overgrown tax code.

Ranking Member Wyden's cost recovery proposal released on April 26, 2016, would appropriately retain current-law like-kind exchange rules for real property.

For small, cash-strapped firms to grow and create jobs, they need to invest in basic things like new cash registers, office computers, or farm equipment when it makes business sense--not when it makes tax sense.

If you own a small business today, you're in danger of being ensnared in an outdated, overgrown tax code that Americans spend 6.1 billion hours and more than $100 billion complying with each year.

I very much look forward to working with you and our colleagues.

the whole point of this is to end the water torture for small businesses.

the cost recovery legislation proposed by current Finance Committee Ranking Member Wyden on April 26, 2016, would leave the depreciation of multifamily property at 27.5 years.

I think of Senator Wyden's proposal as one that accomplishes that.

today I am submitting a resolution to designate May 21, 2016, as Kids to Parks Day. From the Painted Hills to Crater Lake and from Mt. Hood to the Oregon Caves, nature has given Oregon many wondrous treasures in every corner of my State…

My state is a special place, and it has remarkable natural features and diverse landscapes that lend themselves to a variety of recreational pursuits.

The qualities that make Oregon's natural treasures unique are exactly the reasons for protecting them.