Bob Casey

That is real life. We are grateful to you for telling us about that.

How can we have a government that selects different benefits based on different storms in different parts of the country?

It is encouraging that we have a bipartisan panel here.

Even those who have been fortunate enough to get back up on their feet are filled with angst about what a future disaster may bring or grappling with the prospect that misguided government policies may finish the job Sandy started.

I am grateful to Senator Menendez and Congressman Graham who worked in a bipartisan fashion in both Houses to get flood protections done.

It was for me--and I know for a lot of us in the Senate--a learning experience that we do not want to repeat.

We need to give more predictability to small businesses.

Now we have a reticence, it seems, to create the same type of relief that we extended to those fellow Americans for the challenges we are having on the east coast, and that is simply not acceptable.

So we have to look at that as a final provision and as one of the provisions that I think, whether permanently or otherwise, needs to be dealt with.

As a native Pennsylvanian, you know a lot about what is going on in CHIP in Pennsylvania.

We did pass Medicare a couple years ago, in 1965. At that time, a third of elderly Americans lived below the poverty line.

One of the things that we know is so important about CHIP in this whole issue of 12-month continuous coverage is that the incentives are to make sure that the kids remain healthy.

We know how important it is to our future economy, frankly, that we have a healthy workforce ready to go to work.

We all know--I have worked up here for 12 years--things happen in Congress, and, if we wait until next year...

I think your conclusion is correct, that there ought to be some exemption for minimum distribution requirements, say $100,000, that can be taken out without its being required to be taken out.

Give me a sense, if you can--as we try to design policy around the questions of giving those individual investors the tools they need to deal with that basic change, the question of educating investors--what more can we do?

I want to thank our panel for your presence today and your work on these issues.

I would argue that there are at least four reasons, either individually or conjunctively, that would warrant you staying.

Experience has proved that protection by law of the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively safeguards commerce from injury, impairment, or interruption.

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order. There being no objection, the Senate, at 7:26 p.m., adjourned until Thursday, July 31, 2014, at 9:30 a.m…

Senators will be notified when any votes are scheduled. ____________________

Thank you, Madam Chair, and I especially appreciate your efforts to have this hearing, which is a topic that we don't discuss enough, and it's at a time when families are still stressed, even though we're in a recovery, and a lot of…

Thank you very much for your testimony.

We have not been able to get agreement on it, but I think all of us know if kids learn more now they are going to earn more later.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank Vice Chair Klobuchar for having this hearing on a very important set of topics to focus on.