John Barrasso

We would appreciate that, if you could get that back to us at the first available, convenient time.

Both of you gentlemen work very hard to make the Wind River Reservation a safer place to live through the Tribal Transportation Program.

A lot of our roads are in a sad state of disrepair. But that maintenance really needs to be addressed, Senator.

I do want to take a second to welcome Wes Martel and John Smith from the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.

The statistics on the numbers of accidents in Indian Country that are directly attributable to bad roads should shock the conscience of every member of Congress.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your holding this important hearing today.

In your testimony I wanted to ask you a question. You mentioned that whether additional costs would be passed on to project users would be up to the Bureau of Reclamation.

If these documents exist then I'm just requesting you provide them to my office by tomorrow morning.

I think, respectfully, speaking for myself, I disagree with that statement.

This act builds on common sense legislation that I'm proud to have worked with Senator, I'm sorry, Representative Scott Tipton in spurring private investment in clean hydroelectric power generation.

Could you elaborate a little bit on the figures that the Bureau has provided Congress in the past related to its needed infrastructure upgrades?

I've also been trying to get a simple spreadsheet as to how your agency sees, says you have a maintenance backlog of anywhere from 2.5 billion to 3 billion.

Water is the most fundamental issue in my home State of Wyoming.

I want to work together with my colleagues to get the answers we need and to find the solutions that we need to improve the aging water delivery systems.

The infrastructure we have today in my home State and across the Nation is aging.

I'm very concerned that the Interior Department and its leadership has been less than forthcoming about the depth and scope of this problem.

We share your commitment to advancing early learning and making improvements to ensure the programs serving Native communities are the most efficient and effective as possible.

The consistent message from tribal leaders has been that education for their people is among the highest of all priorities.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing on early childhood development and education in Indian Country.

In your written testimony and even some of your oral presentation, you noted the family engagement and community involvement that remains strong within the Indian Early Head Start programs.

I think early childhood is a huge bang for the buck.

We all know that a quality education is a critical factor for success in today's world.

We must ensure that our children have access to high-quality early childhood education.

Could you talk a little bit about recommendations you might have to kind of further accelerate project delivery?

The Highway Reauthorization is truly, to me, a jobs bill. We need more red, white and blue jobs in States like Wyoming, California, Louisiana and all across the Country.