We urge Congress to act on this latest request as quickly as possible to help further the recovery effort. The latest request is the right approach for this stage of the recovery, but a request for additional funds is expected after the turn of the year.

The president signed into law a $100 million increase for the corps for the current fiscal year compared to the previous year's level.

[Already, a $10.5 billion check approved last week is] being used at an increasingly rapid pace, ... We're readying a second installment now.

The president's insistence on spending restraint resulted in both the highway and energy bills coming in far less than originally proposed by Congress.

This report confirms the dramatic improvement in the 2005 deficit picture that the administration reported last month, ... The president is committed to the combination of strong economic growth and spending restraint that will keep us on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009.

Currently the federal government does share royalties with coastal statesmore than $3 trillion to date, in fact. Changing this amount only increases the budget deficit and diminishes the benefit the rest of the nation receives from these national resources.

The federal government's near-term fiscal improvements give us the chance and the responsibility to deal with the long-term budget challenges posed by demographic changes and ever-rising health care costs.

As we move forward we will of course be looking for opportunities to find savings on top of what we have already proposed.

If there are other ideas that are out there, we want to hear them.