I strongly suspect that MMS had long since been captured by the oil industry and that it had ceased to serve the public interest.

Congress must do whatever it can to prevent another family from having to hear that their loved one has perished on an oil rig.

I rise to speak about important funding in the supplemental appropriations act that will help my State of Rhode Island recover and rebuild from the recent devastating flood which left homes destroyed, businesses closed, and thousands and…

It strikes me that the sunset provision accomplishes two things: one, it enables us to have a trial period...

And I would like to hear your reactions to those two thoughts about Section 4.

I think it is a promising area and one certainly that merits our inquiry and exploration.

This amendment would ask the Securities and Exchange Commission to set standards for independence for compensation consultants, so that when, consistent with this legislation, the compensation committee of a board has to evaluate which…

I wanted to share with my colleagues an update on where we are with the bipartisan amendment on which I have been working so hard. The amendment, as you know, would allow States to protect their citizens from exorbitant interest rates that…

I am very proud of that support and very proud of the support of over 200 consumer groups for this legislation, including AARP, Consumers Union, National Consumer Law Center, Public Citizen, and Common Cause. That is a blue ribbon group of…

It is hard for me to see that that is a determination that could have been made in good faith back then.

I mean, if these technologies are new and unusual now, think how new and unusual they were years ago when this application was being considered.

I wish to say a few words on the amendment I have pending and that we will be voting on in the next 2 days that will restore the historic power of States to control interest rates they charge to their citizens. One of the things I hear…

Please assure me that you are not buying into this theory that under certain circumstances there may be a financial disincentive to a company from having a disaster means that the Government doesn't need to do any regulation to prevent…

That is the Greenspan rule. That is exactly the theory that Alan Greenspan used to justify deregulation of the financial regulatory structure that we had.

Why is it that for something that is so complicated and so dangerous as this offshore drilling that the similar level of mandatoriness that you and I have to face with the electrical inspector in our homes doesn't apply to these giant…

I think the President's choice obviously was the right one.

I wish to join my colleagues in expressing our support for Senator Wyden's continued efforts to get this rule changed. The circumstances in which these secret holds take place are quite remarkable. Over and over again we see a committee…

As a new Senator in this body, who had not had legislative experience--I came out of an executive and law enforcement background--I have enjoyed the privilege of serving on that committee under the Senator's leadership. And now to have had…

I congratulate Senator Wyden and Senator Grassley for their long effort to eliminate the secret holds in this body. They thought they had succeeded in 2007 with a mechanism that would scrub secret holds and make them public after 6 days…

I very much hope this can go with bipartisan support. Senator Cochran on the Republican side is a cosponsor as well. It is a bipartisan amendment. This is a situation that the Congress never voted on, the situation that is here to cure. We…

I appreciate your championing that initiative.

But you are comfortable that the EPA's current statutory authority allows it to consider these kinds of harms in its analysis of what parts of the environment need to be protected.

And you agree with Dr. Payne that some of these contaminants will not only bioaccumulate in the individual creature, but for mammals through lactation they will poison the next generation in an increasing cycle of chemical loading?

I think it is particularly important for EPA to be alert to the damage that both carbon pollution and chemical pollution are likely causing or are causing in our oceans.

We also put forth a bill co-sponsored by Chairman Leahy of the Judiciary Committee to reverse the limitation on punitive damages.