Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Committee.

I thank you for this opportunity of coming before you and asking for your support for Donna Tanoue as Chairperson of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

I want to say welcome, too, to the family, Kirk and daughter, Maya, and the parents and sister, all very supportive of her during these years.

Mrs. Tanoue, as we have heard, is well-qualified to lead the FDIC.

I want you to know that I fully support her confirmation. I want to associate my remarks with yours, Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Committee, and my colleague and senior Senator, Dan Inouye.

Based on Mrs. Tanoue's impressive credentials and extensive experience and many successes she has had in bank regulatory matters, I have every confidence in her ability to oversee the FDIC.

As was mentioned, she is a partner with the law firm of Goodsill, Anderson, Quinn & Stifel, one of Honolulu's oldest and largest law firms.

Since joining the firm in 1987, she has concentrated her practice in the area of banking and real estate finance with an emphasis on bank regulatory matters.

Prior to joining the law firm, she served as Commissioner of Financial Institutions for the State of Hawaii from 1983 to 1987. In this capacity, she served as the primary state regulator of state-chartered financial institutions during a time of considerable change and restructuring within Hawaii's financial services industry.

Mrs. Tanoue's extensive experience with bank regulatory matters clearly illustrates that she is an excellent choice to lead the FDIC. As such, Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to lend my full support to Donna Tanoue's confirmation as Chairperson of the FDIC and urge the Committee to act favorably on her nomination.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.