Pell Grants are, and have been, critically important tools in making higher education a possibility for lower- and middle-income students.

Economists report that a college education adds many thousands of dollars to a man's lifetime income - which he then spends sending his son to college.

Only the kids who get a postsecondary education are even keeping even in terms of income in their lives, and so forth. The rest are falling behind, year by year. Only about a twelfth of the Latino kids and maybe a sixth of the black kids are getting college degrees. The rest of them aren't getting ready for anything that's going to have much of a future in the American economy.

Connecticut's first responders and defense workers work every day to help us achieve these goals.

We've got a very busy agenda at the U.N., it's going to be very difficult to get the job done. Let's get behind him, let him do his work … I certainly want to see him succeed but I'm going to watch him carefully.

This will be the first U.N. ambassador since 1948 that we've ever sent there under a recess appointment,