the Federal Government is really giving with one hand and taking away with another because the new healthcare bill... is going to add between $1.1 billion and $1.5 billion of costs.

what we are really doing with this Federal takeover of the student loan program is borrowing money from 19 million students.

I don't think taxpayers really want to support much more funding for more of the same, but they will support a lot more funding for excellence.

I wonder from whose schoolchildren we are going to borrow this money? Because we have a looming debt crisis in our country.

I support the Secretary's notion that we really ought to focus on the 5 percent of schools that are the worst.

While the treaty with Russia may be in the right direction and the nuclear summit that is coming to town may be an impressive group of people, the nuclear posture statement that the president put out is troublesome to me.

We need to catch schools doing things right instead of catching them doing things wrong.

I am glad to see Rocky Fork included in the USFS land acquisition fund.

It makes no sense for us to spend $40 million buying the Cherokee National Forest and then sticking a bunch of 50-story wind turbines on top of it.

I would simply like to encourage you to, wherever appropriate, work in partnership with universities in States like the University of Tennessee or the State of Tennessee or other States and universities to maximize our bucks on this.

I greatly disagree on what you are doing on student loans, but I greatly agree on a number of other things.

I agree with most people who say that parents are first, principals and teachers are next.

I don't think taxpayers really want to support much more funding for more of the same, but they will support a lot more funding for excellence.

I appreciate the struggle of trying to emphasize excellence at the same time you are trying to support schools, both.

So my question would be, are you considering in the East, as a part of your treasured landscape, finding ways to protect the Appalachian Trail specifically and its viewscapes from large 50-story wind turbines?

Thanks, Mr. Chairman.

The point I am leading to is that we often talk with renewable energy about 1,000 megawatts of electricity for wind and solar when only a one-third of that is actually produced by comparison with a coal plant or a gas plant or a nuclear…

The administration's fiscal year 2010 budget includes $569 million for the Federal portion of the LWCF, a 37 percent increase.

Al Shanker said, 'Well, if we have master plumbers, we can have master teachers.'

Well, but if it is a solar or wind project, they only operate about a one-third of the time.

I am happy, A, that you are focusing on treasured landscapes and, B, that the President--over the last 6 weeks--has begun to take significant steps to encourage nuclear power because it has less impact on the landscape.

What are you planning to do with renewable energy and how does that tie into the whole energy plan of the administration?

We had to make some tough choices as we went through the budget.

My concern is especially with the ridges of the Eastern United States, as you know, because we have talked about it because they are the only place, except for the coastlines, where wind works well.

If these were easy issues to resolve, we would have solved them a long time ago.