I just cannot imagine what these two soldiers and thousands like them have been through when they get exposed to that kind of explosion.

We also have an obligation to these troops and their families and taxpayers to make sure that we have measures in place to hold the Pakistanis accountable for their promises.

What is your greatest concern about the transition, the drawdown of our forces?

I would hope that coming out of that October engagement that we have benchmarks or measuring tools to assess what they have done since that.

I would hope that you have a way of measuring and assessing this in a matter of weeks and months instead of waiting a long time to assess what they are doing.

The most important metric is a reduction in casualties.

I juxtapose that effort by our government, our military, our scientists here, with what I hope the Pakistanis put a better effort forth on.

Look. To be skeptical--it is part of my job to be skeptical. It is part of your job as well.

The number of events has increased, which would lead you to believe logically there is more of a flow.

I rise to talk about where we are with regard to the end of the year and especially where we are with regard to the focus we should bring to bear on middle-income families. We have had a lot of discussion in the last couple weeks, using…

just a couple of points when you look at the economic impact on families when they have dollars to spend. The payroll tax cut puts $1,000 on average in the pockets of most families in America. Families making under $150,000 are responsible…

I am confident though we can get this done, that the Congress of the United States can come together and successfully reach the compromise that we need that puts us on a path to fiscal sustainability while protecting middle income families.

I would like to include the remarks made by Mr. Gordon Felt, former President of the Families of Flight 93, for the Record in honor of the Congressional tribute held earlier this morning. I want to extend my gratitude to Mr. Felt and the…

today I wish to discuss what more we can do to prevent the scourge of suicides among our servicemembers. I have been concerned for quite some time about the physical and psychological challenges facing the men and women who serve in our…

I rise today to discuss several issues of importance to the future of our Nation's military. The National Defense Authorization Act before us this year will affect the size and strength of the U.S. Armed Forces and the resources and…

I rise today to talk about our Nation's military in light of the legislation we are considering. I commend Chairman Levin and Ranking Member McCain and all those who are working on it. I just have some comments on a number of amendments…

We do not talk about it enough in the Senate, and I am grateful that you are demonstrating continued leadership on this issue.

Now, I realize that sometimes the best thing for the Congress to do is to provide resources as best we can and to get out of the way.

I wanted to return to an issue that Senator Cardin raised initially with regard to women and in these countries where it is particularly difficult to put in place strategies to allow them to be more a part of the effort to get the results…

Sometimes it is in the testimony. Sometimes we ask about it; sometimes we do not.

So keep it as a front burner issue.

I rise this morning to spend a couple moments talking about the work we have to do between now and the end of the year. There are various ways to describe this, but it is usually described under the broad umbrella terminology called the…

Something went wrong at NECC, and now over 30 people are dead as a result.

I believe we have a duty to exercise our investigative and oversight authority, and to make sure that we take every step possible to ensure that a tragedy like the ongoing meningitis outbreak does not happen again.

Pharmacists have the expertise to help evaluate if compounding is being conducted in accordance with Federal and State definitions and standards.