Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I thank you for putting the spotlight on this disturbing and vitally important part of our American healthcare system.

Our goal is to eliminate HAIs, and I think that this is something that we all can unite on.

It's not right, as you said, Senator, to go to the hospital to get cured and instead get an infection that could kill you.

Prevention and elimination of healthcare-associated infections is crucially important.

We're going to hear more about sepsis today.

We see that, looking at that from here.

This is important to families, students, the future of our country.

The American higher education system of today is like the American automobile industry of the 1970s.

Looking at the governance of 6,000 very different institutions, as Dr. Phillips said; from Washington we see, as Senator Harkin said, the Higher Education Act was authorized in 1965.

I am a big believer in the marketplace and a big defender of autonomy, money following choice, money following students to the institution of their choice, and competition.

I intend to work closely with him in a bipartisan way to get a result.

But you support the renewable electricity standard, correct?

I want to thank you and Senator Murkowski, Senator Feinstein and the Secretary for helping with the bill.

Let me shift gears a little bit to what would happen if we don't have nuclear power.

It would be appropriate to say, I think, that that was a main thrust of the bipartisan commission.

But would you not agree that it is only minimum linkage.

We can negotiate our own linkage, can't we?

One should be for a bill that finds some reasonable way to create new repositories.

We would therefore need, at least, one more new repository.

So that means if New Mexico or Oregon or Alaska or Tennessee don't want one of these repositories, we won't--or Nevada.

If there were money in the Land and Water Conservation Fund, I think I'd agree with you.

It's ridiculous for us to be borrowing money, and the Federal Government that is so heavily indebted, to build roads in the national parks.

I've always thought, and this goes back a long time, we don't have any business using appropriated dollars to build roads, that roads are to be paid for by user fees.

I'd like to move the discussion from the West to the Eastern United States, where we have--and I'd like to get the director's comments on the 2 areas that we've been talking about.

If the Congress were to decide that a priority for us nationally were to fully fund that, and for a shorter period of time use the money to catch up on maintenance in national parks, what would be your comment on that?