I think Dan will be a great addition to the administration.

I can assure you that not only will Dan bring great professional credentials to this very important position, but also great personal characteristics as well.

I do hope that we will continue to make the case that our current transportation funding sources at the Federal or the State level are basically bankrupt.

I recognize the constraints you are under, but we have to continue making the case that there needs to be additional funding.

I was a big advocate for, thinking it was a great first step and a great way to have a beta test of a new, fairly unrestricted pot of money

I really do hope we take this opportunity to think beyond the silos within your Department.

I appreciate that, Mr. Chairman, and let me, first of all, welcome the whole panel and say congratulations on your nominations and hopefully your speedy approvals.

With Peter's background in technology, rigorous analysis, and innovative problem solving, we look forward to a similar approach which will help our Nation reestablish a sound and effective transportation policy.

Amen to what you said, but I would hope that those jump-ball dollars that the Department is going to allocate soon, that you look at how the criteria will be established.

I have dealt with State-level transportation challenges, and one of the most frustrating things at a State level is the silo nature of our transportation funding.

Coming from Virginia, which faces some of the most significant transportation challenges in the nation, I understand the critical need to bring our Nation's best thinking to address transportation issues.

I want to introduce and lend my support to Mr. Peter Appel, of Alexandria, Virginia, who has been nominated by President Obama to be the Administrator of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) at the U.S. Department…

What I have believed for some time is that--and this case I think reflects this--as we move toward getting better data...

My understanding, at least, is that while you have some amount of established protocols within certain specialties, that the evolution of or the growth of evidence-based medicine across a variety of specialties and having those protocols…

I do think that one of the things Mr. Atkins said that struck home to me... is over the last 10, 15-plus years, the enormous focus on the equity side as opposed to the debt side.

I would like to hear out those arguments because it does seem to me that from at least a broader-based societal standpoint, the outside risk and the downside risk that we as a society, in effect, have taken on by these nonskin in the game…

I do think we need something to make sure the board members don't get captured as quickly and often as they do.

I believe a lot of good things may have come out of Sarbanes-Oxley.

I want to continue a little bit on the line of my colleague from Nebraska on the 'too big to fail' component.

We look at size, we look at complexity. Another approach which I have been thinking about for some time...

I think what it does is it speaks eloquently to the need for a systemic regulator, whether it be the Fed or whether it be a committee approach or a new entity that the Fed has some involvement with or not.

I wish it was that simple. Perhaps it is, but I would love to hear that thorough debate...

I guess one thing we have had under the Chairman's leadership, we have had a lot of folk come by on this issue of too big to fail.

I would just urge you to perhaps revisit with your legal staffs this tool because, as we have seen, it is not healthy for the public's confidence in the overall financial system when we see the kind of excesses and everybody saying we do…

But the Government--again, I know you would know the law better than I, but I thought the Government has not taken full ownership...