I believe that we can and should do more to not only prepare these veterans for meaningful civilian employment.

It has to be seen as the first step in their successful career.

These veterans need help translating the skills they have developed in the military into skills that civilian employers can understand.

We are obviously facing very difficult budget times and unfortunately, the President's budget request reflects that for COE.

That is just unacceptable.

I am concerned that this administration does not seem to take these legal obligations seriously.

it is disappointing that we have to fight the administration year after year after year to meet those legal obligations.

I've been pleased to hear about site wide management for infrastructure and support services at Hanford.

I appreciate all you have done in your time with the Corps of Engineers (COE) and the good work of the districts that serve my home State of Washington.

Clearly, agriculture is vital to Washington State's economy and the Central Washington area is a huge part of the industry.

It is a legal obligation. It is a moral obligation. It is a real obligation.

if the administration intends to move forward with the proposed modified funding profile for the waste treatment plant, the only successful way to achieve that is for the administration to increase funding for the entire EM program.

Can you tell me how you plan to continue these important projects?

I come to the floor today in shock and anger that, after weeks of negotiations, after pledges from Republicans to come to the table in good faith, after repeated assurances that they want to talk about principles and budget numbers and not…

I wanted to take a few minutes to share with my colleagues a success story involving the building of a Federal laboratory project with funds from three separate Federal agencies. Several years ago, as part of the efforts to remediate some…

I come to the floor today to express my strong opposition to any attempt to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from doing its job and protecting our families and our environment. The amendments being considered here in the Senate…

The consequences are too great for too many Americans and the Nation's economy to refuse to come to an agreement because of political agendas or pressure.

I think we need to understand what the consequences of this are, and that's been very helpful.

This is going to affect a lot of people.

I want to applaud the efforts of the Administration under the leadership of Secretary Donovan, as well as former Commissioner Stevens, to bring a renewed focus on managing risk at FHA.

Thank you very much.

The elephant in the room of the Congress today is how we are going to come to agreement and avoid a shutdown.

For any of us who have been there--known we have to move out by a certain date, and we're waiting for a closing to occur--this is a very, very stressful moment for many families.

I personally appreciate the focus you've put on oversight and enforcement that you've just talked about.

I really worry that we're putting home ownership out of the ability of many middle-class Americans today with that.