Sheldon Whitehouse

For individuals with high health care needs, this provision provides critically important financial protections that were not widely available in the individual market, prior to enactment of the law.

I represent Rhode Island. Rhode Island, as I am sure you are aware is a real leader State in trying to get the insurance Exchange up.

Put the support at the front. As I said, let the lead dogs run faster and the whole pack will move faster.

We also want to enable negotiations so that that market power can be brought through to the benefit of the consumers.

What I would urge to you as a matter of policy is that you should put as much attention and resources as you can into the leadership States.

I expressed my frustration that the EPA, during the Bush administration, had become a poster child of the opaque Federal agency pandering to special interests.

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standard set long-overdue standards on mercury, arsenic, chromium, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other dangerous air pollutants.

I really need you to promise me that you will send the Justice person at OMB to sit down with me and with folks from the Department of Justice and the FBI to have a joint discussion about what the right level of support is for our…

We need to distinguish in this Committee between what is economics and what is ideology.

I think that OMB is well suited to be a place that sounds the alarm where it looks like there might be instances of regulatory capture in the Federal Government.

I want to assure Senator Grassley that I can give him a trillion-dollar list that gets you there without hurting the middle class.

OMB has in some places become the place where regulations just go to die.

Your predecessor was, I think, also immensely talented and capable, and was filibustered not once but twice.

I intend to support your candidacy. I think you are immensely talented and qualified.

We need to ensure that we are robustly and vigorously enforcing Title 2, the campaign finance laws.

There is nothing in the First Amendment that protects anybody's right to violate disclosure laws through a shell corporation.

I think we have agreement amongst everyone that it is never the government's position or proper role to determine based on the amount of influence that a political group or interest or individual has that they have too much.

There is nothing in the First Amendment that protects false statements and the prosecution of false statements when provided under penalty of perjury.

Nor a false statement in answer to the no on Question 15 and then subsequent immense political activity.

There is nothing in the First Amendment that would protect threatening or corrupt speech, even if it is anonymous.

I believe it is perfectly legitimate to say whether a category of offense is being prosecuted or not anywhere in the Department.

As far as I can know, there is zero activity.

Let me close by reading one thing. We have just welcomed a new Pope. The Conference of Catholic Bishops had this to say about the Ryan budget last year: Congress faces a difficult task to balance needs and resources and allocate burdens…

If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent it adjourn under the previous order. There being no objection, the Senate, at 4:44 p.m, adjourned until Monday, March 11, 2013, at 2 p.m…

I am informed that at 5:30 p.m. on Monday there will be at least one rollcall vote on confirmation of the Taranto nomination. We hope to begin consideration of H.R. 933, the continuing appropriations bill received from the House…