Fulfilling the same role as it did when it was created during the Great Depression, the FHA has stepped forward to help provide liquidity and restore stability to the housing market.

I fought to include those programs in the Recovery Act, because I know that getting commerce and commuters moving is an important part of our recovery efforts.

I'm concerned that, despite the recall of 6 million vehicles here in the United States and 8½ million now worldwide, it's likely that engineers have not yet discovered the problem with the sudden, unintended acceleration in Toyotas.

I think we need a very thoughtful approach as we do this.

I worked very hard and was able to include $26.6 million in the Recovery Act for the Army Corps to complete the Columbia River Channel Deepening Project in Washington State.

Well, did your Department ask for input from communities like Hanford where waste destined for Yucca Mountain is currently temporarily being stored?

I think the American taxpayer deserves more, deserves better.

Thank you very much, Senator Kohl.

We will need to see those. Okay, good.

I look forward to working with the subcommittee and the Secretary to ensure that Maine has the resources we need to maintain our transportation infrastructure.

we cannot ignore it and we have to meet the milestones and we need to fund it.

I was proud that my home State of Washington received $590 million for high-speed rail upgrades along the Pacific Northwest Cascades Corridor.

These are projects that will help families and small businesses in their communities, get workers back on the job, and help lay the foundation for long-term economic growth.

It sounds really good. I just want to see how it works on paper so we have accountability in the system and we know it works.

I rise this morning because I am offering an amendment on youth summer jobs that will build on and extend the extremely successful summer jobs program we included in last year's Recovery Act. Last summer's program put over 313,000 young…

Are you looking at expanding that all?

I commend HUD for getting this funding out the door quickly.

Three times in there you say that Yucca Mountain is 'not a workable option for nuclear waste disposal.' But what seems to be missing is the why.

I feel very strongly that our Washington State farmers and our families should not be punished for a diplomatic dispute they had nothing to do with.

But having administrative challenges at any level here on the ground is a disservice to the veterans.

we have to have consistent priorities and know that that funding is going to be consistently there.

I was really disappointed the President's budget didn't include any funding for 2011.

What are we doing now to fix the problem?

So I am assuming that one of the things you are looking at in proposals is, at the end of the day, does that community envision having lower costs as a result of their planning?

Well, as we now work to reform Wall Street and the financial sector and prevent any future housing crisis, it is really clear that we have to address the future of the GSEs.