Peter Welch

This institution of Congress and the House and the Senate is seen rightly by Americans as totally dysfunctional.

Under the Consumer Protection Finance Agency, would these Vermonters be able to call your office and at least get a yes or no answer on what they could do and some help through the process?

But if we have too much regulation, that can get in the way of, like what Mr. Meehan was saying...

I happen to think that the failure to have regulation caused a lot of harm.

Mr. Cordray, who I am pleased to welcome here today as the first director of CFPB, was appointed to his position by the President on January 4, 2012.

I applaud the early work that has been done looking into predatory practices targeting veterans and I look forward to hearing more.

I was so disappointed to see a culture-proof minority of 45 Senators block Mr. Cordray's nomination to be director.

The simple fact is that we need the CFPB.

So why do we have that standard that appears to apply to bankers?

So is that a you can't handle the truth?

Is it basically the consensus that Congressman Meehan's question that implied more information is better is a point that all of you agree with?

When we have a nuclear power plant that the cooling tower collapses and we're told not to worry about it, that's hard to be comfortable.

If something can go wrong, even when we think it won't, it probably at some point will go wrong and that's what we saw in Japan.

Safety is my concern. And I know that safety is your concern, but I just have a few questions that caused me some concern about how active and aggressive the Commission is on coming to a conclusion about some safety standards.

When things like a cooling tower fall down and the reaction on the part of the company that runs it is that it's not really a big deal, that doesn't provide great assurance to the people of Vermont.

I don't think that Congress is the place to go to resolve this.

I regret, obviously, that we're here. This is not a personnel committee, and it is regrettable that there is this conflict at the senior level of the Commissioners.

If it were as easy as writing a check and having the police force in Iraq and Afghanistan be established, it would be no problem.

I am going to be introducing legislation that does trigger debarment proceedings for contractors that are convicted of violating the bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

A lot of the situations that you are uncovering just reflect the impossible expectations oftentimes that Congress has.

I would never support something to be allocated to the customers that I am entrusted to serve that they didn't get benefits from.

Costs may not be involuntarily allocated to entities that do not receive benefits.

There still has to be a benefit-to-cost ratio that exists before you can charge for it.

Order 1000 really gave the flexibility to the regions, and I want to emphasize this one more time.

I demand a recorded vote. The Acting CHAIR. Pursuant to clause 6 of rule XVIII, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Vermont will be postponed. Amendment No. 3 Offered by Ms. Jackson Lee of Texas