Joe Manchin

We need to do more to address the unique challenges of river crossings.

It is important that we hold PHMSA to the highest standards.

I want to thank Senator Daines for his leadership on the pipeline issues.

I was acutely aware of, you know, making sure that anything and everything that happens in the state of West Virginia and every other Governor in their state does so with the utmost concern about the safety of the citizens.

You are working through the deadlines, you are working with the industry and making sure that we are doing everything we can to expedite this along?

In West Virginia, it doesn't matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat; you just have to get something done.

Have you put a working group together, working with the railroad executives and engineers and the people on the front line and all the people that are on the rails, trying to get input from them to try to better this or do the things that…

I was amazed to find out that we are still using technology that is 50, 80, 100 years old.

But if we are not moving toward a new technology, and our whole country depends on it, why would we not be using some of the easiest, latest, greatest advanced technologies for train traffic?

I require your agency, NHTSA, and others, NTSB, to take a hard look at the adequacy of Amtrak's family assistance plans

I did not get the feeling they are moving in that direction.

Are you getting any pushback on that whatsoever? Are the states saying we still don't have the info we need in time enough to make sure that they have the proper equipment and people available in case, God forbid, something would happen?

I know, Senator Cantwell, you and Senator Murkowski and I are going to continue to work closely together on this very topic.

I want to commend Lisa Murkowski, the Senator from Alaska and Chairman of the Committee, for advancing a reasonable solution on these difficult issues.

If the United States rejects the deal now, it will not be possible to negotiate a new one.

I believe that the nuclear agreement reached by the United States, its P5+1 partners, and Iran is a good deal.

I believe it does, thanks to the efforts of Congress and the administration to leverage sanctions in pursuit of that goal.

So, that's why I'm afraid that, if we reject this deal, we will end up not with a better one, but with an Iran that continues down the path that it has been on.

I know many Senators still have concerns--legitimate concerns, I might add--so I would like to address them head on.

I am confident that through continued and increased military and intelligence support to our partners in the region... we can continue to contain Iran.

The decision that we make is one of the toughest decisions any of us have ever made since I've been here.

I think there's plenty of reason, actually, to believe that it would not.

I remain opposed to this compromise. In my view, it could embolden Iran and strengthen its conventional capacity in ways detrimental to our own interest.

Establishing a tough-minded policy now is the right way to convince Iran there will be immediate penalties should it not implement the deal fully and completely;

We should create, in effect, a two-track American policy towards Iran in the future.