Sheldon Whitehouse

I just want to close with an expression of my very great pride in what you have done in Rhode Island.

Thank you for your leadership in bringing this message (inaudible). It is critically important.

Congress has a unique opportunity to make a difference in the lives of so many by reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act in 2011.

The Violence Against Women Act is working, but the job is not done.

I want to assure you that as we go forward in Washington on these issues, that we will be in close touch with you.

I hear from Rhode Islanders through letters and e-mail all the time on a wide variety of topics.

So what I think I will do is just briefly adjourn the hearing to allow that disruption to proceed.

And what is the effect that has been shown to take place with children who are witnesses to domestic violence?

Tell me a little bit more about the problem of children who witness violence.

I think one of the reasons that this hearing is so important is the size of our contractor footprint overseas.

We appear to need to better coordinate our law enforcement resources.

We are certainly interested in that in Rhode Island because, as you know, we are one of the top e-prescribing States in the country.

According to the CDC, drug-related poisonings are now the leading cause of death due to unintentional injuries in my home State of Rhode Island and in 16 other States, greater even than motor vehicle accidents.

But their abuse poses a serious and growing threat to our communities and young people.

Used properly, under a physician's direction, pain relievers and other prescription drugs bring much-needed comfort to Americans.

The hearing will come to order. This morning's hearing considers a topic that is extremely important to the health and safety of our kids, of our families, and of our communities, and that is, 'Responding to the Prescription Drug Epidemic…

Let me express my great appreciation to Senator Durbin of Illinois for his many years of leadership on this issue. I am very proud to be a cosponsor of his legislation, and I look forward to passing this bill. I am reminded of the story in…

The information that we have from the Internal Revenue Service is that the top 400 tax income earners in the country from the last time the IRS did this calculation, they earned, on average, a little over a third of a billion dollars each…

It seems to me, Secretary Reich, you mentioned the failure of the United States to maintain the traditional, progressive tax structure.

The point you are making, and I agree with it entirely, is that if you look at all of the taxes, who pays, where the wealth is, our system is not only regressive but it is getting more and more regressive.

Although it was a chore for them to get through the initial adoption process, if you go to the Thundermist Health Center in Woonsocket which is probably one of our leaders on this, and you tried to take away their health information…

I want to thank Senator Sanders for holding this very important hearing. He has shown a lot of leadership in this area.

I think we really need to be working on those boundaries, and I think that 'as open as possible' is simply not an adequate standard to this task.

And from your point of view, the Trojan horse analogy for some apps is a fair one.

Are we in morning business? The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Morning business. ____________________