Sheldon Whitehouse

We are the State with the least national parks of any State, and you could probably fit our national park about in this hearing room.

I hope very much that you will work with me and my office in trying to identify ways for these very small dams on very small rivers that the application process, the information that is required and all that can be reduced so that some of…

The idea of standing as a big corporation on equal terms with a regular person in front of a civil jury? It is offensive to them.

There is more here than just an injustice to the consumer. There is a real blow to the Constitution

There is an entire campaign by corporate America to deprecate and degrade the civil jury.

The civil jury as an institution was vitally important to the Founding Fathers.

I think a lot depends on whose ox is being gored here, and right now it is the consumer's.

Class actions, let us remember, everyone, that class actions desegregated schools. They made workplaces fair and equal.

So if we allow the corporations themselves to put these tricks and traps into their consumer contracts, we are basically giving them open season for low-dollar, high-volume fraud on consumers.

I wonder what the response would be like if corporations in consumer contracts down in the fine print, in tricks and traps, instead of taking away consumer rights, particularly consumers' rights protected by the Seventh Amendment, were…

If the biodiesel tax credit expires at the end of the year, if we cannot fix the tax extender problem which we have frequently failed at doing, this would then be the only market incentive remaining for that industry.

I do think we need to reconsider the value of ethanol, particularly ethanol produced in coal-fired facilities as a carbon value as opposed to adding to our carbon hazard.

All I can tell you is that for the folks in the industry who I talk to, they do not see it as a floor, they see it as a target...

I think it would be a mistake to unilaterally walk away from the realm of big data to protect our national security.

Judges must respect the role of Congress as representatives of the American people

Thank you very much, Your Honor, and let me offer a general apology on behalf of the Senate as an institution to all of those who were inconvenienced by yesterday's activities.

The process that we go through traditionally involves the input of United States Senators to make recommendations to the President for these nominees.

The jury trial is really a central feature of our justice system as the Founders envisioned it.

The important role of the jury not just in our system of justice but also in our system of Government

I think judges are very much continually educated and affected by the public decisionmaking process that they steward.

While I was awaiting my turn to speak on the floor, I had the opportunity to hear both Senator Boxer and Senator Baldwin. I commend both of them for very excellent and eloquent remarks and thank Senator Baldwin for her courage and…

So at a minimum, it would require additional costs.

But it is your experience as a practitioner that, other things being equal, higher overcrowding will have a tendency to increase violence and risk within the population?

Well, we certainly hope it is the moment of tremendous opportunity, and I want to thank you and the Urban Institute for the effort and the professionalism that they brought into that report.

No matter how long people are kept in prison, they should be nearer to their children, especially if they are mothers of those children.