Sheldon Whitehouse

It actually gives me goose bumps to think about the path that has brought you here today.

These calls for restraint and modesty, and complaints about 'activist' judges, are often codewords, seeking a particular kind of judge who will deliver a particular set of political outcomes.

It is fair to inquire into a nominee's judicial philosophy, and we will here have a serious and fair inquiry.

I particularly reject the analogy of a judge to an 'umpire' who merely calls 'balls and strikes.'

I would love to get to a place where the State and local folks who are enforcing that prerogative are doing a little bit less scratching of their heads as to why the Federal Government is putting so much money into things that they…

I want to share with you my concern that the classified elements of the previous administration's cyber strategy in my view put us on a collision course with very basic civil liberties questions if the trajectory is not adjusted and…

I think that homeland security was favored at the expense of hometown security, and there is, I think, a reasonable case to be made that it was done for political purposes to make America look like it was on a wartime footing.

If you extend the Bush strategy, I believe, on the trajectory that it was launched on, it drives you to a civil liberties collision that is unnecessary and I think unhelpful.

Her broad experience and success in protecting human health, the environment and effective environmental enforcement is evident.

I have known and worked with Cynthia for many years and have seen first-hand her leadership in the Ocean State on many critical environmental issues.

Thank you for holding this important hearing today to consider the nomination of these three very well qualified individuals to fill key positions over at EPA.

The United States, the water quality here, is the envy of the world.

When you are talking about the waste associated with water use, it is hard to overlook the extraordinary waste of energy and oil and everything associated with bottle water.

I would ask your assurance to all of us that in that balance you will be pressing your organization to push upward as far as the facts and the law will drive.

High-interest-rate debt is financial quicksand for consumers.

This makes me think that we need to really look at substantive regulation.

We have lots of disclosure, but we really have obfuscation by disclosure.

The standard credit card agreement gives the lender the power to bleed their customers through evolving and ever more crafty tricks and traps.

American consumers are relying more than ever on credit cards to just make ends meet from month to month.

The hearing will come to order.

First of all, let me thank you, Chairman, for holding this hearing. This is a very important piece of legislation of those who have lived through it.

It is distinctly in the public interest for this information to come out.

Looking back, do you believe it was prudent as a Nation to have run up, as I calculate it, the $7.7 trillion in debt during those 6 one-party years?

We seem to have an inability here to grasp the obvious that people who are out there in the environment, working in the real world and the real environment see every single day.

I asked her, where was the minority report; she said there wasn't one.