I ask unanimous consent for an additional 30 seconds, and I will finish. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

I would simply say that I want to commend this debate we are having and commend Members on both sides of the aisle. As I said at the outset, no budget is going to be perfect for every Member, but this is a credible, important first step in…

I turn now to my good friend, the Senator from Delaware. This has been an extraordinary passion of his. I know as chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, along with the ranking member from Oklahoma, this will be…

I know the answer to this because we have talked about this in the past. We do not have a complete list of all of the various programs.

I commend my friend, the Senator from Oklahoma, who has made this a passion. I would acknowledge this is a challenge that transfers between administrations. When I was Governor of Virginia, under the previous administration, we tried to…

I believe we need a balanced approach. The notion that we can continue to take away revenue sources is not a responsible way to address this budget. I urge my colleagues to support amendment No. 693.

I urge my colleagues, if we want to repeal the estate tax and pay for it, to vote for the Warner amendment No. 693. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time in opposition? The Senator from South Dakota.

in the spirit of what our leader said about us trying to move along, I think while we may have a variety of views, we all know we are $16.5 trillion in debt--a debt that goes up by $3 billion every night. The last thing we should do is dig…

there are strong feelings of opinion in this body about the estate tax. I personally believe the current estate tax--with a very generous $5 million-per-person exemption, and $10 million per family; an estate tax that only applies to 3,800…

let me thank the Chair for her good work and putting this budget together, which I believe is the first step as we try to resolve this issue. The Senator from Washington has mentioned this has become my passion in this body. I absolutely…

I wish to just take one moment before I yield time to the Senator from Delaware. (Disturbance in the Visitors' Galleries.) The PRESIDING OFFICER. There will be no expressions from the gallery.

I wish to thank the Senator from Hawaii for the real stories of how these sequester cuts are affecting folks in her State of Hawaii, and, obviously, my friend, the Senator from Virginia, has expressed those challenges as well. Let me be…

To briefly respond--I don't want to keep returning to the ``Blazing Saddles'' analogy, other than the fact these cuts were set up to be the stupidest way possible. No rational group of folks would allow them to come to pass. The only other…

I thank the Senator from Virginia. I ask unanimous consent to engage in colloquy with my friend, the Senator from Virginia, the Senator from Hawaii, and the Senator from New Hampshire as well. The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without…

I would ask the Senator, I know he has seen and is very familiar with these installations and their families because of his tenure as Governor. You may also want to make the point: in an area such as Hampton Roads where you put these folks…

let me, first of all, thank the chairman of the committee for her great work in putting together what is this first step toward getting this issue that has plagued this body and plagued this country behind us. This budget, as I have said…

the more bipartisan consensus you can find from outside expertise to see, again, how it would be funded

I actually believe there may be something earlier on in the chain where there might be this kind of common information transparency platform that would be totally separate from any kind of Government backstop that currently Fannie and…

I hope, Mr. Chairman, that 2013 will not end without us doing something in a bipartisan way to reform these.

I really do think this is the moment.

There are real challenges in this system that we have got right now.

Although I would add that those of us who are able to qualify for jumbo mortgages is a relatively small strip of the housing marketplace.

But I do appreciate, Mr. Wallison, you are absolutely consistent on all of these issues around Government backstops.

I think there is a growing sense that we can find some commonality on this, that we can put--maybe not to the extent of all the panel will agree, but a number of backstops and a waterfall of preconditions before you would ever get to some…

I would love to sit with you with these various layers, and there may be a way on that ultimate backstop to take a slice.