Joe Manchin

I do not think that is FHA's role.

I think all of you have heard that we have some concerns, and I come from the State of West Virginia, which we never really hit the housing bubble.

Would any of your run your business the way FHA has been run?

But it is definitely higher than $16 trillion.

It would be irresponsible for us not to do something.

Well, I am just saying that there are a lot of us concerned about we keep kicking the can down the road, but that is a whole another conversation.

One very quick question, if I may, to the Senator from North Dakota. There might be a fallacy of thinking that only oil that is going to move is what we would buy from Canada. How much oil would be moved from the United States that we…

My other question would be this. Since we have Senators from two of our great producing areas, knowing the challenges we had in Louisiana and the gulf coast with the BP oilspill, as well as a lot of concern about the environment and that…

They are just saying to comply with the massive amount of paperwork regulations and the people they would have to hire to do that when they were not at fault.

Glass-Steagall was put in place in 1933 to prevent exactly what happened to us.

I think most of the community banks believe that it has been very onerous on them.

Wall Street reform was enacted to make the financial system more resilient, minimize risk of another financial crisis.

I am optimistic that we can work together on a bipartisan basis.

While concerns have been raised about whether a few firms remain 'too big to fail,' Wall Street reform provides regulators with new tools.

I ask that you craft these rules in a manner that is effective for smaller firms, like community banks.

Right now coal provides 37 percent of all electricity generated in the United States.

The EPA is holding the coal industry to impossible standards.

We have a responsibility. We also have seven billion people that would like to eat and provide for themselves.

Is it time to reevaluate how we compensate those that are in the most dangerous locations?

I remain concerned about the number of contractors still being used for tasks that our servicemembers could do.

The proposed involuntary, 22-day furlough of Federal employees will hurt West Virginians.

Secretary Hale, are you watching to make sure that pay and benefits are equitable across the Services?

If the sequester occurs on March 1, approximately how many National Guard members serving on temporary ADOS orders would be impacted?

History proves that we have drawn down spending after every war. We will draw down spending after this war.

It is incumbent upon those of us that are elected to do the country's business that we avoid sequestration, that we avoid the year-long CR as well.