I will support that legislation as it moves through Congress, to reimburse the State of Tennessee and the counties of Blount and Sevier.

I know that Senator Murkowski is one of the most able and respected members of the United States Senate.

I have known her a long time. I don't think I have ever heard her quite so strong in her comments.

I think you are one of the President's most able appointees. I think you will do a tremendous job as Interior Secretary.

If the issue is jobs, then could we not come up with a better proposal...?

I believe families should not live in poverty, and I think the idea of raising the minimum wage to address that is a stale, bankrupt, ineffective policy.

Republicans believe there is a better way than this and we would like to offer those ideas.

my hope would be that if we are going to continue to consider this proposal about jobs that we would be allowed to have amendments that would do better than cause a loss of 500,000 jobs

Of course, we greatly admire what you’ve done.

Will you commit to study those aspects of it and consult with us in the development of such a rule?

I think if we are going to give integrity to the commitment the administration makes, and the Congress makes to workforce development and skills training--all of the things that get us to a stronger workforce, and therefore, a strong…

My own view is that that is where the action is.

We do not want that to happen. I mean, that is $147 million every year going into Tennessee that could be better spent.

I would like to push it more toward the Governors' point of view on this.

I come from a State where the Governor yesterday announced that in Tennessee, community college attendance would be free for any student who wanted to go.

I was hoping that we could take the Head Start Centers of Excellence idea and fully implement it.

what's most difficult for them is when Medicaid spending goes from 8 percent of the State budget to 30 percent.

I'm a Republican, and I made a proposal.

We need to align our payment streams with our current technology.

We have to address those conversations immediately if we're going to make any difference in the conversation that we're having.

It's been my experience here that if you get States involved with the Federal Government, you usually get more than just one and one equals two.

My own view is that since we've reauthorized it eight times since 1965 that this would be a good time to start from scratch, at least for part of the Higher Education Act.

Well, the testimony was that it would save up to $100 billion.

Are we spending that $1.1 billion most effectively as a way to help low-income students?

Should we take this $1.1 billion and turn it into 180,000 or 200,000 Pell grants for students?