Jay Rockefeller

I think you are a problem solver. I welcome that. I think you are going to be a superb Secretary.

Picking specific research projects or even scientific disciplines to be funded through a political process and favoring them at the expense of others is a mistake.

It doesn't make me popular, but it makes me do my job.

We must continue to defend scientific research and to make it a priority.

I've been so happy to support Federal funding.

I have never deviated from that, and it all flowed very easily simply because of the moral compass that was working within me after I had finished my 2 years with VISTA.

The divide in our country is bad and it is getting worse.

It is a tried and true non-discrimination tool that has been used very effectively.

One thing we know is we are tipping toward a lot of power in the hands of one major cable company.

Too much power in the hands of too few. That is really what the Comcast/Time Warner merger would produce.

This gives the Commission the clearest path to enacting strong and open Internet rules.

Congress has an opportunity to encourage innovation, to promote competition, and to protect consumers, and we hope they do so.

We are pleased to see a section of Senator Rockefeller's Consumer Choice in Online Video Act devoted to updating the program access rules.

Nobody was a bigger consumer champion than you have been during your time in this committee and leading this committee.

The FCC and the Justice Department should block both the Comcast-Time Warner Cable and the AT&T-DIRECTV mergers.

Consumers cannot wait for the 'mythical' re-write of the communications law.

We applaud that effort.

We believe that the FCC and the DOJ should reject it outright.

Make no mistake, the video marketplace is at a tipping point.

Yet these mergers, essentially media mergers and telecommunications, railroads and airlines, just to name a few--a lot of folks around here do not like the word 'regulation,' but I suspect some folks who come from rural states recognize…

This is a very serious hearing and a very important hearing.

It remains an open question whether online video can become the driving force of a consumer-centric revolution.

You have been a leader on that issue, and your engagement on these issues and hopefully work with Senator Thune is enormously important.

Could that be manipulated to favor the company that owns the wire?

We need a video marketplace that more closely embodies the American values of free speech, fair competition and the rewarding of creativity and innovation.