I appreciate your answers during the hearing to questions about your ability to remain impartial as FDA Commissioner.

I rise this afternoon to talk about a set of issues we don't, frankly, spend enough time on that relate to our children. I have often said--and I think it is true throughout this Chamber when we talk about these issues--that we come to…

I think it bears repeating how devastating, at least in my judgment, sequestration has been.

I wanted to maybe direct my questions to our first two witnesses, and I say this as representing a state where we have got something on the order of 57 percent of our state is forested.

I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Syria

I rise to talk about the conflict in Syria, and in particular what is happening over the next couple of days and weeks. We know that in the last 4 years, starting in 2011, this conflict has resulted in the deaths of a quarter of a million…

the Child Poverty Reduction Act, basically doing what the UK did, which is to set a target and figure out a way to reach the target.

What our bill would do would be to set a target of reducing the number of children living in poverty by half in 10 years.

None of us is doing enough on this and certainly not doing as much as the people in front of us.

You have 3 million more kids living in $2-a-day homes.

I was struck by that searing statistic from your testimony on page 1: as of 2011, 1.5 million households, with 3 million children, reported cash incomes of no more than $2 per day, up 130 percent from 15 years ago.

You have to work and act to reduce that number.

We need all of the other programs, but helping them to be able to provide for their families and investing in that opportunity is what is important.

The poor you shall always have with you.

As a member of the Senate Finance Committee as well as the HELP Committee, I frequently hear about mental health and the child welfare system.

I think it is absolutely imperative we do not allow the same thing to happen to necessary medical care.

I rise to speak about the same subject that my colleague from Delaware just raised and so many others before him. It is bipartisan. This loan program, which we have had the luxury, I guess, all these years of relying upon, has allowed us…

I thought Senator McCaskill put it very well when she said that if you had that pattern in robberies, law enforcement would be all over it.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations... the world's population will reach 9.1 billion.

Some of us had mentioned, as Senator Ernst did, national security.

We all say that, but I am not sure those of us who are not professionals or have experience with it fully understand what we are saying or the meaning of it.

We need mandatory, mandatory, mandatory prescription monitoring.

We absolutely have to hit this head-on.

Naloxone is a remarkable advancement. Here you can literally, at the scene of an overdose, be able to reverse that horrific consequence. It is a lifesaver. It is a wonderful innovation.

Thank you for participating here at Allegheny General Hospital.