Patty Murray

We need to help families join that middle class.

Though you said your position has changed, these comments, as you can imagine, are pretty troubling and suggest a lack of judgment and respect for women.

I really hope today that you can speak a little bit about how you stand with workers and not just be another voice for those at the top.

I hope you plan today to lay out your commitment to remaining independent at the Department of Education and not just blindly implement whatever is handed to you.

I am concerned that we have watched as President Trump undermined worker protections and made it easier for corporations to take advantage of workers today.

I think our children are the most important investment we make, and the protections they have are critically important.

The Department of Education's primary responsibility is to stand up for our students.

It is clear to me that since day one, she has rolled back protections for students and borrowers, making it easier for predatory for-profit colleges to take advantage of students.

I'm hoping to hear from each of you today that you don't intend just to be a rubber stamp for the President's policies and agenda.

We welcome the opportunity to continue to work with you as you advance healthcare reforms

I feel very optimistic that there's a lot more that we agree on than we disagree on with respect to that goal.

I'm confident that this committee can do it again because we know this isn't about us, it's not about partisanship, it's not about politics.

We've heard from really great witnesses who have laid out some really good ideas for helping us to move forward and engaged in productive negotiations.

I think this is the way things ought to go. This is the work that we should be doing here in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans coming together focused on common ground and working to find results for our constituents.

I'm deeply concerned about the Administration's recent cuts, 41 percent cut to Navigator funding, 90 percent cut to advertising.

The idea that you can slap together a bill with a couple of people in Washington and not have hearings and not have the benefit of outside-of-Washington expertise is really misguided.

We know that without the CSRs, certainly like others, our rates would go up over 20 percent this year, above what they already are.

OK, and this committee has heard a lot about providing certainty for this program beyond 2018, so more than 1 year.

So making sure we provide those services is an incentive to young people to sign up?

I hope that our conversations over the last few weeks can mark a turning of the page away from that kind of partisanship.

People across the country are looking to Congress for solutions on health care.

We have heard from many people, including Republican and Democratic witnesses, who see the need for multiple years of certainty on out-of-pocket cost reductions.

I am really pleased that we have had very productive, bipartisan conversations over the last 2 weeks.

This is really the way things ought to go and the way we should be getting things done in the Senate.

I am really grateful to you for returning us to this committee process, and I think it has been very productive.