America's highways, roads, bridges, are an indispensable part of our lives. They link one end of our nation to the other. We use them each and every day, for every conceivable purpose.

For three decades, Democrats and Republicans worked together to make our environment better.

Our strength and our security depends obviously on having a strong military, having a strong economy, and also on our ability to have willing allies and nations join us in common global efforts, the principal one today being terrorism.

Every American deserves to live in freedom, to have his or her privacy respected and a chance to go as far as their ability and effort will take them - regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or economic circumstances.

When the public's right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered.

I do not think it is an exaggeration at all to say to my friend from West Virginia [Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former Ku Klux Klan recruiter] that he would have been a great senator at any moment. . . . He would have been right during the great conflict of civil war in this nation.

All Americans should have access to quality, affordable health care.