So you are saving people $360 a year in their heating.

Let me begin by concurring with much of what the Senator from Pennsylvania has said. I think he is right-on. Like him, I rise today in strong opposition to the unfettered free-trade agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama. Let's be…

Good morning and welcome to an important hearing sponsored by the Green Jobs Subcommittee.

I would hope, Senator Sessions, and all members of the panel, that we pursue this issue of on-bill financing.

We can do more. We surely can. And on-bill finance programs can help.

So these are people who come in with weatherization efforts, with new lighting.

So let's work on that together, and thank you.

I always enjoy the Senator's remarks. However, I cannot quite agree with the thrust of his statement. In my view, the current trade policies in this country are a disaster. The evidence is very clear that they have cost us many millions of…

this country faces many problems. But I think if we go out on Main Street, if we go out to rural America, if we go to my State of Vermont, what people will tell us is, the major crisis we face is we have a massive problem with…

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Unemployment Crisis

I secured a provision in Dodd-Frank, which you were not too enthusiastic about as I recall, which allowed for an audit of the Fed during the financial crisis.

Do you believe that this economy will recover so long as we continue to have this growing gap between the very, very rich and everybody else where some people have so much, and so many people have so little?

I believe you do have the emergency authority to provide emergency loans to small businesses so that we can create millions of jobs.

I would urge your support to do what you can to make sure that those outrageous interest rates are done away with.

I think the perception on the part of these demonstrators, and millions of other Americans, is that as a result of the greed, the recklessness and the illegal behavior on Wall Street we were plunged into this horrendous recession we are…

When you have six financial institutions with that much economic power, why shouldn't we break them up?

Can you give us any reason why Congress should not do the same for the large financial institutions?

I think most Americans perceive today that the middle class is collapsing, poverty is increasing, real unemployment as you know is about 16 percent, 25 million people without jobs or underemployed, and yet at the same time we have growing…

Are you prepared to provide low-interest loans to small businesses in the same way you provided it to large financial institutions around the world?

I would just simply suggest that during the financial crisis you acted very, very boldly--$16 trillion in revolving loans.

The top 1 percent earn more income than the bottom 50 percent. The wealthiest 400 people own more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans.

But you do have the authority. Some would disagree that--whether you should have that authority--to deal with unemployment.

I get calls in my Vermont office every week from people who are paying 25 or 30 percent interest rates on their credit cards.

Do you believe--if you were sitting where we were, would you be supportive of breaking up these large financial institutions?

my State of Vermont has been hit very hard by Hurricane Irene. Widespread flooding caused a number of deaths, the loss of many homes and businesses, and hundreds of millions-- perhaps $1 billion--in damage to property and infrastructure. I…