Sheldon Whitehouse

It is not unheard of in litigation, for instance, against big corporations and entities with enormous amounts of money for them to go out and basically try to lock up all the best experts.

If we are going to approach this, as the President himself has said, as a war, we need to fight it 24/7.

Doesn't it make sense to give them a break during the hour to cool off?

For the sake of the people who are in those neighborhoods and who are law abiding, it is important that there be the social services so that they can continue to have a safe and orderly life.

I think it is a wise investment and we look forward to trying to make that investment as smart as we can make it.

Whether or not you particularly like the individual, you are better off if they are working and paying taxes than if they are incarcerated at the ACI and absorbing your tax dollars.

There are neighborhoods where one in four 18 to 35-year-olds on the street are under the supervision of the Department of Corrections.

It's difficult in a democracy to legislate in an area where the public is not adequately aware of the threat.

There's a real advantage to getting this information out to the public.

I think that it is an important step when people move from their private lives to wear the robes and as we wear the robes and assume the responsibilities, the lifetime responsibilities of a United States district court judge.

They will decide cases based on the law and the facts; third, that they will not prejudge any case, but listen to every part that comes before them.

We are delighted to have Senator Bayh with us and back in this chamber again and we will be very sad when his son, Evan, goes on to other accomplishments and leaves us at the end of this term.

I usually ask of judges to assure me that they will, first, respect the role of Congress as the representative branch of government of the American public policy.

They will respect precedent, like it or not; and, finally, that they will limit themselves to the issues that the court is called upon to decide.

I am hoping that the process that we undertake through this task force will ultimately lead to having some confidence to add a savings number into the budget.

We are well over half a trillion dollars a year going down this pipe, so it is worth making sure we can track it to the end.

Thank you, Senator Warner, and thank you both for your testimony.

The Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan report identified in particular KBR, which collected nearly $32 billion since 2001...

There is always the danger in the contracting oversight world of what I call and what economists have for a long time called regulatory capture.

Clearly, Government contracting is an important area because, as you have pointed out, the extent of it and the hundreds of billions of dollars that flow through it just gets bigger every day.

I think this is exactly the sort of hearing that we envisioned when I asked Chairman Conrad to set up this Task Force on Government Performance for the purpose of trying to better evaluate Government performance, efficiency savings…

And in that particular case, the institution of the jury lost, and the predictability for corporations won.

I understand that. That was the holding of the Court. But my focus is on this particular finding of fact that they made, which was, A, unusual and I think peculiar from a Supreme Court; B, factually wrong in everybody's experience who has…

Thank you for our time together. I wish you well. And I appreciate how well and with what good humor and how openly you have answered all of our questions through this long ordeal.

The courts should defer to Congressional fact finding