I know that the members of this committee take the advice and consent clause of the Constitution seriously.

One of the things that has to happen around here is we have to restore confidence in the American people.

The budget proposes raising the effective tax rate from 35 percent to 41, 42 percent.

I am a huge believer that incentives work better than penalties, although recognizing that sometimes penalties need to be in place because there are bad actors.

Part of it has been the speed with which we have done things and the size of the things that we have done.

I particularly want to thank and congratulate Senator Mikulski for her tremendous work on the Higher Education Act.

Oh, it was a nice chance to visit with everybody and those of us who are Senators, were able to tell which of our staff worked late.

Now is not the time to play the blame game. We need to focus on immediate assistance and the rebuilding of the region.

I look forward to hearing from SBA Administrator Barreto and Associate Administrator Mitchell about what the SBA has accomplished in response to Katrina.

I introduced sweeping legislation with my Ranking Member Senator Kennedy.

Anything we can do to promote financial literacy will make a difference in this country.

Today, as Americans head off to work, 17 of them will die and 18,600 of them will be injured on the job.