the safe transport of crude oil on rail lines is of great importance to me, my constituents, and my colleagues.

I think it is absolutely vital, so thank you.

I was really pleased to work with Senator Heller to introduce the Women Veterans Access to Quality Care Act this year.

This has been ongoing forever and it is not being resolved, and it is a huge issue for our Spokane veterans.

I want to stress how critically important it is for the VA to prepare now to meet the needs of a growing population of women veterans.

Last year, I introduced legislation to expand the caregiver support services the VA offers and to make the full program available to veterans of all eras.

We also support S. 469, the Women Veterans and Families Health Services Act of 2015, a bill introduced by Senator Murray.

I want to know what you are going to do to restore emergency services and surgical care for the veterans that rely on the Spokane VA.

That is unfair. That is un-American. This is a step to try to rectify that problem.

I believe the only way to create sustainable economic growth is from the middle out, not from the top down.

Now, Democrats and Republicans both agree that sequestration is terrible policy.

Thank you, Mr. President. Congress, we have to vote on an economy that works for all of our families, not just the wealthiest few. Today, 43 million Americans do not have access to paid sick days, and when they are sick, they have to…

I believe that we should be investing more in children, not less.

I am very hopeful that Democrats and Republicans can work together to make investments we need to make.

Okay, we look forward to seeing that very soon. And thank you.

I was actually pleased to see that your budget proposed a significant increase for the Office of Civil Rights (OCR)

I understand the need for additional dollars. You're right. We need to make sure that both the victim and the perpetrator have an answer.

Democrats and Republicans agree that the automatic spending cuts across defense and nondefense investments are terrible policy and need to be fixed. The bipartisan Budget Act we passed last Congress did exactly that for the past 2 years…

I am pleased that your proposal will help make college more affordable by increasing investments in the Pell Grant program.

That compromise is a strong step in the right direction to fix the badly broken No Child Left Behind law.

we discussed during the hearing the importance of increasing funding for the Office for Civil Rights, reducing the backlog of complaints and supporting every effort to improve student safety at colleges and universities around our Nation.

The President's budget proposal would invest in students, educators, schools, and communities to make sure that every American has access to high-quality education from the cradle through their career.

Unfortunately, I believe that that budget proposal, and the one that passed the House, fails to support investments that we do need in education.

We should be ashamed of ourselves, and we should want to do better for our kids and for our Nation's economic competitiveness.

It is worrisome for our competitive global workforce in the future, because other countries are investing.