Bob Casey

May I just ask you--when you started--or, I should say, when the new administration started, what was that number?

I think, in a way, that it's unprecedented, when you think about what the Congress can do, what the administration can do, and what our international friends can do.

I think it happens to be both.

We're here, I think, because we're summoned by our conscience, first of all. And we're concerned about security.

I want to thank both of you for your work on this.

The bill would make long-range agricultural productivity and rural development a top development priority.

These partnerships are also a key component of the Global Food Security legislation that Senators Lugar and Casey are sponsoring.

Our hopes for economic development in poor countries will continually be frustrated if populations are unable to feed themselves.

Overcoming hunger should be one of the starting points for U.S. foreign policy.

We want to have an honest dialogue here about implementing their initiative and getting our legislation passed.

I know I'm way over time. I'll stop. But, it's my sense you've been pretty reluctant to join these reforms.

What I can't understand is, Why has your industry, for years, so aggressively--spending lots of money doing it, not just using your voice, but using your dollars--to oppose efforts to do just what you and I have just had a discussion about?

But, here's the problem for a lot of Americans. They feel as if they have no control, or no ability to impact the control, of rising costs.

I think, makes a good bit of sense.

We think it's important to, one, let all of this proceed.

But, the bottom line with that is, you need to hold all programs to the same exact high standards and provide the support for teachers in those other settings to improve their credentials and improve the program quality.

Well, it's so important to be able to form those partnerships.

We want to make sure that a program like this doesn't compete with or injure or diminish the chances for funding and continued investments in Head Start.

Thanks so much. And I want to thank Michele for adjusting to the time.

I urge Congress to support funding early childhood programs as they reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

So, I think the single most important thing I would like to see you continue to have leadership on is that, exactly as Dr. Ackerman said, quality matters.

We've gotten strong partnerships from the business community, working with Governor Rendell and his team.

90 percent of a child's brain is formed by the time they're 5 years old.

These children left my class ready to be the leaders and role models in their new kindergarten classrooms.

I really believe, on a lot of this work, there's going to be bipartisanship.