I would suggest that unanimous consent is used to circumvent the regular order----

And in particular the debt ceiling was not contained in the budget, it was not debated in the budget, it is not part of the budget, and the only question here--we could have gone to conference 60 days ago if the Democrats had simply agreed…

It is utterly unacceptable for this Justice Department to refuse to prosecute felons and fugitives who attempt to illegally purchase firearms.

The first thing we passed after 9/11 in this country, the first law was embarrassing.

In my view, Federal Government ownership of assets, be they spectrum, be they land, or anything else, should be the minimum necessary to protect our critical national interests.

I have been disappointed that in my judgment the current Administration has been less than vigorous in pursuing free trade.

I think that is the most critical element to ensuring our long-term strength and also expanding the opportunity in this country for the least well off among us to climb the economic ladder and to achieve the American Dream.

I hope that if you are confirmed that you can provide a voice in this Administration for pulling back the regulations that I think are so damaging to economic growth and in killing jobs.

Can we have a commitment from you... to target waste, fraud, and abuse, to target redundancy, to target ways to trim the fat and tighten the belt?

We may see even further budgetary cuts at some point in the future.

I will certainly accept as a friendly amendment to work on 10 instead of 3.

California has already been able to realize a 25 percent cost and time savings as a result of the NEPA delegation.