Mike Lee

As a conservative Republican who favors free markets, I believe that ensuring robust competition in this critical area of our Nation's economy will benefit consumers, it will spur innovation, and it will lead to job creation.

Internet search is critical to economic growth in the United States and Google has long been a dominant force in this arena.

The American people deserve more facts about how their taxpayer dollars were wasted and how you, as the nominees, will work to ensure it doesn't happen again.

I agree it was a perfect storm, but I don't think we should be blaming China or the markets or a previous Administration.

We don't know yet what role, exact role, the White House played in rushing reviewers to approve a decision on a centerpiece--really the centerpiece--of President Obama's so-called stimulus program.

The new law requires citizens to get Government permission before they touch a voter registration form from anyone other than their immediate family.

I think it is very important to have a grounding in real facts, and so I appreciate this opportunity to share some of them with you here today.

In a free republic, you have got to have the personal responsibility to participate. Voting is one of the highest and best civic transactions we can undertake.

We have not been sued once. We have not even had allegations, legitimate allegations that anyone...has been legitimately--or illegitimately disenfranchised by Indiana's law, because it is reasonable.

The bottom line is that, after 6 years' worth of elections, Indiana's photo ID law works.

I applaud this progress, which I think demonstrates Ranking Member Grassley's commitment as well as that of the Republican members on this Committee to work with our Democratic colleagues in moving forward with consensus nominees.

I commend President Obama for his excellent choice in this nomination.

I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are aware of the comparatively generous treatment afforded to President Obama's nominees, particularly those for the Fourth Circuit.

I think this speaks well both to President Obama's nomination process and to the ability of this Committee to work together on a bipartisan basis.

In Utah, these farms contribute more than $2 billion a year to our economy.

But you have described yourself as a huge fan of an organization that calls for no economic growth.

I want to emphasize the double-pronged nature of the threat because there is only one side of it I feel has gotten adequate attention.

There's a difference between revenue raisers and tax increases. There are ways of raising revenue without raising taxes. If it's a tax increase, that's something that Republicans in the House and in the Senate are not going to support.

Clearly, the process was abused. You don't use a hotline to bait and switch the country into a military conflict.

I want to also thank Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Mike Lee for introducing this important legislation.

Nothing further. Thank you.

Thank you. I've got a couple of technical lingering questions just related to the funding mechanism contemplated in S. 1224.

It doesn't seem to me to be a very good idea, if we want something to happen, to say 'may' rather than 'shall.'

If you're committed to having it happen, I assume that it wouldn't be a problem to use the 'shall' language.

It makes a difference in much the same way that if my wife said, 'Mike, take out the trash, you shall take out the trash and do the dishes,' that means something different than 'Mike, you may take out the trash and do the dishes.'