I just wish to briefly add to the discussion and thank both the chairman and Senator Carper and my good friend Senator Corker as well. We are breaking new ground. We are creating a new national Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I…

I want to commend the chairman of the Small Business Committee, and my colleague and friend, Senator Landrieu, and Senator Isakson for this amendment. I am proud to be part of it. I think those of us on the committee when we were drafting…

I think many of us who have had the opportunity to preside have heard--and in particular on Monday afternoons--the Senator from Delaware come down on a regular basis, for months, to speak on what, until last Thursday, was a pretty esoteric…

We will be, for the first time in nearly 50 years, for a period of years unable to go into low-Earth orbit.

We cannot assume the agency will have unlimited resources for every mission it wants to undertake.

If we fail to act now, the President and this Administration will be remembered for killing America's leadership in space exploration.

We also asked the President for the safe completion of the current Space Shuttle manifest even if it has to be flown into next year.

Lack of review normally guarantees there will be overlooked requirements and unwelcome consequences.

I want one of you to tell me how NASA's human spaceflight programs advance the agency's overall mission today and in the future.

I am very concerned that the new plan, as I understand it, will prohibit us from having human access to low-Earth orbit on our own rockets and spacecraft.

Exploration drives technology innovation, not the reverse.

I want to understand the value of human spaceflight.

We here in the legislative branch are going to try to continue to work with the Administration to refine his plan and change some parts of it.

Curiosity is the essence of human existence.

We asked for the extension of the International Space Station's life, instead of it being cutoff in 2015 as previously planned.

I unfortunately cannot take as optimistic of a view of the President's plan.

It is time to have an honest conversation about the Space Shuttle and its importance to our short-term capabilities.

We need its scientific minds to be involved in solving today's and tomorrow's challenges in energy, medical research, robotics.

I believe the President was poorly advised.

The proposal by the Administration to, what I would call, kill the Constellation program... will be, in a word, devastating.

We asked that he consider a strong vision statement. In fact, we specifically said a vision of going to Mars.

We must leverage our existing capabilities and workforce to reach our goal.

I have yet to find a person in NASA, the Defense Department, the Air Force, the National Academies, industry, or academia that had any knowledge of the plan prior to its announcement.

Our 50-year legacy of leadership in space is on the line, and we need to have a credible plan to make the next step forward.

I cannot support going into space as an end in and of itself.