You probably will not find a bigger supporter of changing to a value-based way of paying for health care than myself.

I think what we are all dancing around here on the back and forth is that, even if we want to move to value-based payment systems because that is a better way to deliver health care--it is proven--then what do we need to do to make sure…

on this debate we are about to pursue, I ask unanimous consent that 9 minutes be given to the opponents and 8 minutes to the supporters of this legislation. I would like to take 5 minutes now, reserving 5 minutes for Senator Menendez, and…

do I have time reserved in the consent agreement? The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington has 10 minutes.

I wish to ask the Senator from North Dakota just one more question, because I want to make sure she continues to make her point and I know we have a colleague waiting. Aren't we here right now today to ask our colleagues that when we come…

I wanted to ask the Senator from North Dakota a question, if I could. I see she has been out here with an actual display. It is quite amazing that we have to go to this level to bring up an issue about jobs in our economy, but I admire the…

I yield whatever time for our discussion to continue of that 10 minutes. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.

I come to the floor to ask my colleagues to not vote for cloture on this measure and to give the Senate a chance to work its will. Many people know this legislation is being brought over from the House. I appreciate the good relationship I…

The whole point of the export credit agency is to give U.S. manufacturers the credit. My point is that these products are agriculture based. If the Senator from North Dakota could explain, these aren't agricultural manufacturing products…

I would also ask my colleague this. I have read some articles in the press on this subject, and I know in Florida there are so many Puerto Ricans and many in New Jersey as well. But I read this quote from the Miami Herald, that said…

Through the Chair, I thank my colleague from New Jersey for being on the floor. When I think about the pressure being applied in the halls here, where one individual said, ``you can see the pressure running through the halls of the…

Through the Chair, I would say to my colleague that I have heard your concerns on the floor, and I look at these problems. I know some colleagues say: I don't want bankruptcy. We want a process here. We don't want a bailout. Well, by…

I don't know what Leonardo DiCaprio is doing, but I guarantee you there is going to be another movie. It is not going to be ``The Wolf of Wall Street,'' it is going to be about Puerto Rico. People are going to find out exactly how we got…

I would also say to my colleague that I think the mystery here is some people think that what will happen is it will just get worse in Puerto Rico, and that is true if we don't make the right decisions. This is a time where we need to come…

I wonder, because a lot of this debate has been so focused on the people of Puerto Rico, whom I fully want to support, and I wish this body would engage in a full, robust debate, with amendments and a markup. But, there are costs to the…

As I bring up--this is a provision I am just getting familiar with, and I am obviously very concerned about it. Through the Chair, I would say that I am very concerned about the fact that now we are going to turn over all this authority to…

I am wondering if my colleague from New Jersey is aware of this point, which I find most interesting and am trying to understand. He has been talking about this control board and all the power they are going to have. Do you understand that…

I see my colleague from New Jersey has been on the floor for several hours talking about the very important issue that frankly deserves a lot more discussion in the U.S. Senate. It is an issue of great importance to this territory of the…

But I think this is a better path forward than the route we have been going: in the aftermath of a fire trying to decide what to do with salvaged logs.

I believe we must effectively address the root cause of the problems with fire risk and fire budgeting.

Scientists are telling us that these seasons, these fire seasons, are both longer and hotter.

If the Federal Government is going to be spending between $2 and $3 billion a year on fighting fires because of the increasing risk, we need to do something to reduce the risk and I think this is a suggestion worth considering.

I think this is a culmination this morning of a lot of hard work on this discussion draft, more than two years.

I so appreciate the Senator, and I wanted to ask him because his comments are right in line with the comments that I think are so important for people to understand. This past March, we got the first hard numbers from the impact of this…

I want to thank the Senator from Connecticut for his tremendous leadership out here tonight and all through the day. I think for Senators, if you have never led a filibuster, up until that point, you probably don't know for sure that you…