I thank Senator Rockefeller for all of the action that he helped us to take 4 years ago with the Miner Act.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate you holding this hearing, which was called 'Creating a Culture of Compliance.' That's what we're trying to do.

You know, if you had a safety program, you'd have more people available for work, and you'd save a lot of money.

Doesn't it seem like we really ought to extend that program and get more of the people that are good participants into that program?

It's very frustrating, for those of us who worked so hard on the MINER Act, to hear accounts of MSHA's activity at this mine.

I suspect that the thousands of people that we'd have to hire in order to have a shorter period of time than that would create quite an economic burden in this country.

Thank you, Senator Harkin, for holding this roundtable as part of our series of hearings on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

I have two key questions in mind. First, what can we do to fix the current version of ESEA--commonly known as the No Child Left Behind Act?

Second, how will any proposed changes effect or impact schools and school districts in rural areas?

All of these new taxes will drive up the cost of health care in this country and result in higher insurance premiums.

Unfortunately, just weeks ago, Congress passed and the President signed a massive new law that will impose unjustified premium increases on millions of Americans.

We know the new law will actually drive up premiums--according to the Congressional Budget Office estimates, average premiums for families will go up by $2,100 because of the new law.

The Joint Committee on Taxation has repeatedly told us that the taxes in the new law will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums.

I would like to thank Chairman Harkin and Senator Enzi and the members of this committee for their great efforts to take advantage of this opportunity and reauthorize ESEA in a bipartisan and effective manner.

However, there is a vast disconnect between a teacher who meets certain requirements on paper and one whose teaching has a true impact on students in the classroom.

It is also important that the leadership in our schools supports good teaching and student achievement, encourages innovation with results, and creates a safe learning environment.

I believe that the underlying purpose we had in No Child Left Behind regarding highly qualified teachers was a good one.

Rural and frontier schools and school districts are unique and often need unique solutions to their unique problems.

I am very concerned that requiring school districts to use one of the four school turnaround models for schools identified for school improvement will adversely affect rural or frontier schools.

Strategies mandated from Washington will simply not solve the problems facing these schools.

I want to thank you for your diligent work in moving us along on fixing No Child Left Behind.

If we are going to mandate interventions from the Federal level, we need to be clear about why we are mandating such reforms.

this is not a killer amendment. This just kills a bad part of the bill. The reconciliation bill makes a bad employment situation even worse. It imposes $52 billion in new taxes on employers who cannot afford to provide health insurance to…

A better balance is needed between prescriptive Federal mandates and State and local flexibility.

I am also concerned about the potential impact the legislation has on rural schools, school districts, and States.