Heard at the NCSL Legislative Summit in New Orleans ...

• Position: AS THEY SEE IT - National Conference of State Legislatures - Brief article

"We'll get out of this slump. The short term is pretty clear. We're going to spend a lot of money. The longer-term problem is more difficult. You're going to have to make a lot of painful adjustments."

--Lee Hamilton, former congressman from Indiana and vice-chairman of the 9/11 Commission, at a general session of the Legislative Summit.

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"There's a reason U.S. schools get their butts kicked in international comparisons. You've got to remove the obstacles that limit instructional time."

--Dr. Paul Vallas, superintendent of the Recovery School District of New Orleans, in the Dallas Morning News.

"Katrina and Rita were a wake-up call for this country on energy. We didn't heed that call three years ago, and that's why we're paying $4 for gas."

--Kansas Senator Carl Holmes, in The Advertiser.

"You know when you do infrastructure in your state, what happens? Literally thousands of people are put to work in good paying jobs that cannot be outsourced."

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, at a general session of the Legislative Summit

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"Forty percent of illegal immigrants in America came with papers from the federal government. They simply overstayed...