Sometimes up here, we are more ideological in Washington.

I'm a big believer in the fact, as I think are most of us here, that since World War II, it's hard to think of a major technological advance in our country that's not had some Government-sponsored research involved in it.

I recently led an effort with 10 of my Senate colleagues calling on the Administration to implement an explicit timeline.

We have some big ideological differences on this committee, but we also get a lot done, sometimes unanimously, because we go through that process.

I think it's a very different idea. It came out of a bipartisan proposal called America COMPETES.

One of the unintended consequences we may have learned from the Affordable Care Act is that even though it sounds like a good idea to require people to buy more benefits with a health insurance policy, they end up costing more and get…

this budget is woefully underfunded for a project that's not only important to jobs here at home

We have maybe 75 million households who get investment advice from somebody.

if we are able to either take the administration's proposal of a lockage fee or the fuel tax, the increase that the barge owners have said they would like to pay, if we had that extra $100 million, would that increase the chances that…

the hope was--as we worked through this last year and the conversations we had was as we got these projects in a priority order, which we all agreed on, which is--should be very helpful to the Corps so you won't be pulled in so many…

I thank you for your courtesy, Senator Moran.

It is clear to me that Congress says no national school board.

There is a law here that says if you are going to affect overtime rules, there is a way to do it. Why aren't you doing it that way?

We represent the people of this country for a reason. We are here, ready to do our jobs.

Our waterways are woefully underfunded, and it is hurting the economy and restricting the economic growth of our country.

As I mentioned, there are great concerns among Tennessee farmers that your proposed rule to define waters of the United States will cover ditches, stock ponds, and other water facilities that have not been regulated before.

We have got to step up our maintenance in our waterways. It is a very important part of our national economy.

We have some big ideological differences on this committee, but we also get a lot done, sometimes unanimously, because we go through that process.

We worked together to try to get on a 6-year path so that we can take care of the backlog of needs.

Thank you, Madam Chairman. I look forward to working with you.

I would hope the administration would work with us to increase the fee and that as you and the General make your plans, that you would think about all of these projects, or at least two or three of them, at once.

And I think the proposal that we had in the Congress was to increase the fuel tax.

I believe that is a State and local responsibility, and you believe it can be required from Washington, DC.

I can't remember anyone who said to me it's easy to pay for college, and for me, it wasn't so easy--scholarships and jobs and all that.

I think we should in future hearings talk about various ways that have been suggested to limit the over-borrowing that saddles some students with too much debt.