Speech

Each year, an estimated 21,000 Americans die from lung cancer caused by exposure to radon. This invisible, naturally-occurring, radioactive gas concentrates at dangerous levels in homes and persists for years, often without a family's knowledge. Minnesota is a national leader in reducing the risk of radon exposure. Our state's voluntary program includes educational curriculum, control programs, and targeted citizen outreach. This program has saved countless lives and become a model for other states to follow.

This Republican budget is a political document. It is the House Republican's platform for November. This GOP platform puts our economy and millions of jobs at risk. They gut protections for seniors and families in need. And, they abandon local communities at a time when Washington should be a partner for opportunity and economic growth.

Today, in the House Budget Committee we are debating the GOP/Ryan Budget for 2013 which the Washington Post called, "dangerously wrong for the country." The GOP budget repeals the health care reform law – undermining women's access to quality, affordable, comprehensive health care, and once again empowering insurance companies.

Good morning! It is an honor to be with you today. I want to thank NCAI President Jefferson Keel of the Chickasaw Nation for this very special invitation to join you today. Thank you for the warm welcome, but more importantly, thank you for being here in Washington, DC.

Thank you for making your voice heard in Congress. Your voices, the voices of Indian leaders must be heard in the policy debate that is shaping the future of our country in 2012 and shaping the future of Indian Country.

Good morning to everyone, and welcome to Washington.

Thank you to the National Ground Water Association for this great award. Thank you Danny for coming from Minnesota.

I am lucky to hail from the Land of not only 10,000 Lakes, but also multiple levels of excellent aquifers!

We Minnesotans take our water very seriously and are proud to be leaders in showing other states how we care for our most precious natural resource.

Mr. Secretary, as we have discussed previously, you are familiar with legislation that passed the Senate – S. 1134, the St. Croix River Crossing Project Authorization Act.

This bill exempts the St. Croix Crossing Project from the protections of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and it mandates the construction of an extradosed design bridge at a cost of $700 million. This is truly a mega-bridge connecting Minnesota and rural Wisconsin.

I strongly oppose this legislation. It represents bad fiscal policy, bad transportation policy, and bad environmental policy.

[as prepared]

Thank you, Mr. Zients.

I'd like to shift gears here a little bit and talk about part of the budget that we usually don't ever discuss here in the Budget Committee. I'm hoping I can capture the Chairman's interest, and we can talk about this some more in the coming months.

The Red Cross, Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity – these and thousands of other nonprofits are working to solve problems and improve quality of life in communities across the United States.

CHUCK TODD: We're expecting the president to arrive in St. Paul in about 90 minutes from now, and then he'll head over here for the first of five town halls over the next three days. We met in St. Paul with Democratic Congresswoman Betty McCollum, but she drove down here, and she joins me now.

REPRESENTATIVE BETTY MCCOLLUM (D-MN): Well, it's good to be here. Great Minnesota weather. Welcome.

MR. TODD: Well, there's a lot of Minnesotans in the news over the last 24 hours, so let me ask you about former Governor Tim Pawlenty. Were you surprised that he got out?