extreme environmentalists have hijacked the permitting process with endless lawsuits aimed at eliminating livestock from public lands.

The bill gives ranching communities the certainty and stability they desperately need.

So we need to hear how we can close the achievement gaps and build upon some of the successes that have been achieved in Indian education.

Education is the key to preserving our Native languages and cultures.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing. When you start talking about your earlier days as a teacher, I would think that Senator Franken would join me in saying, you continue to be a teacher, a teacher to us in the…

We have all heard the statistics. Indian students perform below their peers in standardized tests, in reading and math.

as you well know, I come to the floor each week with a doctor's second opinion, and it specifically relates to the health care law, the law that was passed now over a year ago, with many promises made by the President, one of which was…

Is that analysis being done now?

I always have concerns that there may be other groups out there. Such as snowmobilers, ranchers, who may have strong reservations about S. 268 and the impact that it will have on the local economy.

S. 375 authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Interior to enter into cooperative agreements with State foresters.

the American people do not want their elected representatives playing politics with nuclear safety.

This exchange between Senator Tester and Senator Risch seems to indicate that there has been progress there.

This is, kind of, the third Congress that I brought this piece of legislation. So I'd hope that we could truly move ahead in an expeditious manner.

I don't want to be in the same situation as Senator Murkowski, talks about the years of delay even though that the discussion continues.

I come to the floor, as I have week after week since we passed the health care law, giving a doctor's second opinion of the law. I come today because last month President Obama delivered a very big speech on spending. Unfortunately, it…

I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 15 minutes as in morning business. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

across this country Americans are feeling the pain at the pump. Gas prices are approaching $4 a gallon. Families are going to spend, on average, about $800 more on gas this year than they did last year. Unrest in the Middle East and a weak…

I guess I was just curious given the provisions of S. 220.

The Act's establishment of a national Indian Youth Service Corps (IYSC) and grant program would enable Indian youth.

I think, Mr. Chairman, we could have found a better way to start this process.

Until the underlying issues related to the President's wild land polices are resolved, these bills are going to face, I believe, strong opposition by many members of the Senate.

I think for anybody that has concerns about what the Department is doing with these lands, I think that was a very telling choice of a code word.

I also need to state that wilderness bills which include Bureau of Land Management Lands will be complicated by the Administration's approach which I believe is a wrongheaded approach, to their wild land policy.

I am the Chairman of the Republican Western Caucus, so those are obviously issues that we have concern about.

The Diesel Emission Reduction Act, or DERA, has been instrumental in making those type of efforts successful.