interaction. we need this in southeast asia smart power is an effective way to fight radical i'dologies that use their own attacks against their own government and freedom this was recognized by general petraeus and by president bush when the president authorized him to institute the counterinsurgency strategy in iraq, which means not only did we go in and clear an area of iraq, which means not only did but we stayed there to make sure that al qaeda didn't come back and that we worked with those provinces, with those areas, with the local governments and the local leaders to build the infrastructure they needed, to help them get the health care, to do things that were important to build a strong community.

in al anbar, for example, a sunni region that had been a major concern for the united states, one of the first thing the marines did in 2007 was rebuild the sunnis' blue mosque, one of the most important mosques in the region. this is the kind of effort we need to make in those areas where we are not actively fighting. we have the military might to support those countries in their battle against terrorist activities when they pick up, to fight against piracy that might occur off their shores. as the vice chairman of the senate intelligence committee and a member of the defense and state foreign operations appropriations committee, i'm working with my colleagues in this body to ensure congress provide the resources and policy initiatives needed to expand the use of smart power. for instance, we must increase the number of peace corps volunteers and foreign service officers. we must encourage more america

americans, young americans to volunteer to serve in that region. more business people to visit there, to seek opportunities where they can help those countries and help us in -- at the same time. it sounds simple, but i believe that by putting more american sandals and sneakers on the ground, we can avoid sending in american combat troops later. i saw firsthand the payoff of smart power when several southeast asia nations, particularly indonesia, were devastated by the tsunami in december of 2004. the month after that disaster, i traveled to southeast asia with representatives of the u.s. government, the deputy secretary of defense, our ambassador. we visited the tsunami ravaged areas and met with representatives from the relief organizations, and we saw the tremendous benefits that the volunteer n.g.o.'s,

nongovernment organizations, and the american military brought by bringing fresh water, by bringing medical supplies, by bringing food to the region, by helping clear areas. our military and the volunteers from our embassy and elsewhere in the region helped avert what i think were tens of thousands more deaths. we met with the indonesian government officials and they were absolutely deeply grateful for our help in providing clean drinking water and food, emergency evacuations, medical help, and rebuilding. this kind of assistance the united states provided in just that short time created a before unmatched outpouring and goodwill for america, for appreciation, for the democratic values of other countries as well who helped, like singapore and australia. unfortunately, after the flood waters receded, to, too, did america's engagement, america's

smart power in the region. now, the recent attacks by terrorist organizations, probably jemlismelea in jakarta should be a wake-up call that it's far past time to reinvest in the region and quit ignoring the dangers of failing to do so. president obama in condemning the terrorist actions highlighted this danger when he said that -- quote -- "these attacks make it clear that extremists remain committed to murdering innocent men, women and children of any faith in all countries." the president got it absolutely right. the war against terror is far from over and the battles are not confined to the middle east. freedom-loving nations must continue to fight terrorists, not just in the border regions of pakistan and afghanistan, but also in the jungles and countless islands of southeast asia. more than just a call to arms, however, these attacks should serve as a deadly reminder that the war against extremism, against insurgency cannot be won by military might alone.

many of our top military and intelligence leaders say that military action is no more than 20% or maybe even 10% of the efforts we should expend to ensure stability in governments that are friendly. and in order to be truly successful, the united states must focus the weight of the effort on the ideological front, reaching would-be terrorists before they turn violent. i have today a resolution that recognizes the importance of indonesia, but it's just a small and symbolic step. we must do more. i hope my colleagues will think about this region and think about the points that i've made. america must wise up and make smart power initiatives a cornerstone of our foreign policy and our efforts to combat terrorism, extremism, deadly

murders and attacks around the world in our country and elsewhere. and the best place to start is in southeast asia. mr. president, i submit a resolution commending indonesia on behalf of myself and senator inouye. i yield the floor and suggest an absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. a senator: thank you, mr. president. i ask the quorum call be suspended. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. i come to speak because i have tremendous concerns about the effects of the waxman-markey climate change bill, concerns about the destruction of jobs and the costs to our economy. the waxman-markey bill may create some green jobs. if it does, great.

we need green jobs in my state. we need green jobs all across the country. but we are developing -- because in wyoming, we are developing our wind resources. so we need the green jobs, and wyoming has world-class wind. but to me, this bill also costs jobs, and americans want all jobs, not just some jobs. people don't want to lose the jobs that they have with the promise that they may get a green job in exchange someday down the line. americans want all the jobs. they want to keep the ones they have, and they want to create more jobs, more opportunities. to me, the waxman-markey bill fails to do that. the administration says that the waxman markey bill will create millions, millions of new jobs. this administration also promised that after congress passed the so-called economic stimulus package that they would create or save 3.5 million jobs. well, since the passage of that

bill, being signed into law, unemployment has reached 9.5% in this nation. last month almost 500,000 people lost their jobs. the administration's economic expert said that unemployment would not exceed 8% if the stimulus package passed the senate, passed the house and was signed into law. well, they were wrong and not just by a hreufplt in an interview with george stephanopoulos, vice president biden acknowledged the administration officials were too optimistic when they predicted unemployment rates would peak at 8%. the vice president said the administration and i, he said, misread the economy. well, is it possible then that the administration is misreading the economic predictions of millions of new jobs being created in this bill? the administration failed to make the grade on the $787 billion stimulus package, and i believe the administration is

failing again by supporting this misguided climate change bill. now, it is a fact that the climate change legislation will cost jobs in the american economy. that's why there is language in the bill to retrain workers who lose their jobs. well, why will this legislation cost jobs? the waxman-markey climate change bill is designed to make fossil fuel more expensive. adequate to say we must make fossil fuel more expensive to change the behavior of businesses and consumers. that means making everything powered by fossil fuel more expensive. fossil fuel powers your car, your home, your office. it powers the airplanes we fly and trains we ride in, trucks; things that we use for our own transportation, but also things where we ship goods from farms and small businesses to the marketplace all across this country and even abroad. all of these things will be made

more expensive because of the climate change bill that passed the house. when you increase the cost of bringing goods and services to the marketplace, especially in a recession, it becomes a recipe for economic disaster. it leads to lost jobs and lost economic opportunities. we can't afford in this country to lose more jobs. by deciding to pass waxman-markey, the majority will increase the cost of doing business, the legislation will increase the cost for every small business. the legislation will force them to pay more for everything that uses energy. those costs will put businesses in debt or even out of business. jobs will be lost and unemployment will continue to climb. the administration talks about creating green jobs. well, we certainly want those jobs, but we also want the red,

white, and blue jobs that have powered america for centuries. there was a "washington post" article on july 21. it was entitled "u.s. green jobs seen taking years --" let me highlight years -- "of planning." the article mentions up front that alternative-energy jobs can provide vocations across many sectors of the economy, but policy to spark them can take years to develop. not now, not six months from now, not a year from now. but years into the future. promises of immediate green jobs being created across the country because of this waxman-markey bill are just another misreading by this administration. the economic stimulus package was simply the first thing that the president misread. those jobs never materialized. the green jobs promised in waxman-markey may also take years to develop.

however, the job losses that the bill creates, those losses will occur immediately. in an "investors business daily" editorial july 17 entitled "following california off a green cliff," the editor states that america remains the richest country on earth -- america remains the richest country on earth -- but it might profit from adopting a bit of the attitude displayed by much poorer but up-and-coming economic rivals such as china and india. those nations don't take prosperity for granted. that is why they aren't such good sports on global warming. they prefer to get rich and then go green. the author goes on to say that the u.s. isn't so poor that it can't afford strong environmental policies, but it can't afford to take its

prosperity for granted either. let me repeat that last line. it can't afford -- we, the united states can't afford -- to take our prosperity for granted. we here in congress, the members of this congress, cannot afford to take the prosperity of this nation for granted. if we pass waxman-markey or a bill similar to it, that prosperity will erode further. we should create jobs and we should create more wealth in this country. we need to keep business costs low so businesses can expand and create wealth for our nation. and we can do that by making america's energy as clean as we can, as fast as we can without raising energy and without raising energy prices for the businesses and the families of america. our end goal must be to do everything we can to keep the jobs that we have now and also

to find ways to add new green jobs. americans want all of the jobs and more. we need them all. thank you, mr. president, and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

ao quorum call: quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. a senator: i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sessions: mr. president, i just want to make a few comments on the defense bill that passed late last night. senator levin and senator mccain did a very fine job in working through all the difficulties that we faced and

tried to put together a bill that will support our troops. indeed, i just was on a video conference this morning -- really at noon with the alabama national guardsmen, an m.p. company from prattville, taking their third deployment. the last one was guantanamo and now they're going to iraq. we owe them a great deal who put their lives on the line for us. they leave their families an loved ones and go into harm's way to execute the policies that we gave them to execute. and, as a result, we must never forget what we owe them and i hope that we never do and i think the bill that we passed has some good things in it. some are troubling to me. i did not talk last night in the late evening about the section

1031 of the national defense authorization act entitled the military commissions and al qaeda matter. it was an important little amendment. and i want to share a few thoughts about it. what we discovered was that in the defense authorization bill al qaeda was removed from the unlawful enemy combatant definition. my amendment put that back in to the bill. if you join al qaeda or -- if you join al qaeda, you have earned the designation of an unlawful enemy combatant. an unlawful enemy combatant is someone who -- or belligerent. we're now using the words unlawful enemy belligerent.

those are people who operate outside the rules of warfare. they don't wear uniforms. they deliberately and systematically target women and children and innocence. they do not comply with the rules of war, the geneva conventions, and they, therefore, aren't given the normal and full protections of the geneva conventions. a person who is at war with the united states, as al qaeda has repeatedly announced that it is, who does its military activities without complying with the geneva conventions, deserve to be attacked. they deserve to be killed or captured by the united states military. and that's what we are doing. and if captured, they deserve either to be prosecuted or held until the hostilities are over. that's what the historic rules of warfare are. it's what we've always done, and

we need not to be confused in this war and start treating it as if it's some sort of criminal activity, therefore, compromising our ability to be effective and placing at greater risk those individuals who we send in harm's way like the 217th military police group from prattville, alabama, who are going to iraq. we don't need to be confused about what this is. it's not a law enforcement operation. and we also adopted a -- an amendment last night that prohibited the intelligence communities of the united states, our agencies, or our military from giving mir randa warnings to people captured on the battlefield. that's unthinkable. it's a confusing thing. what you're basically telling these people that we capture is:

don't talk. we'll give you a lawyer. in fact, some of the n.g.o.'s, the nongovernment entities, were telling americans not to talk and to ask for lawyers because we were beginning to give them mir randa warnings. it's just a confusing thing. this is not anything that's an overreach. it's consistent with our -- our law. make no mistake, al qaeda has announced and continues to be at war with the united states and we are at war with them. we cannot minutes words. we can't leave the world to believe that we've softened our resolve to defeat this enemy that threatens us. according to a july 15th, 2009, just recent cnn report, bin laden's deputy released an audio tape calling on muslims to join the jihad against the united states. i wish that weren't so, but that's what it is.

just last week a terrorist group affiliated with al qaeda targeted two american-owned hotels in jakarta, indonesia. an editorial in the july 21st, a few days ago, "the wall street journal" pointed out that last week's hotel bombings were not some isolated event. quote "in the 19 months leading up to the jakarta attacks, islamic terrorists have brought their holy war to upscale the property is islamabad, pakistan, and pakistan. the casualties thus far number 116 people killed and hundreds more injured. so i asked my colleagues in the the middle of war against al qaeda is it advisable to removal

crieda from the -- al qaeda from the definition of unlawful enemy combatant or even the new form, unprivileged enemy belligerent. that's the new word we're using. perhaps it's all right. i don't know why we changed. but we have to be careful with the words we use. can anyone imagine the united states congress removing nazi from the wartime definitions in the middle of the second world war? what do we hope to achieve by taking al qaeda name out? unfortunately last night it was put back in. but what would have been achieve lid removing their name from that -- achieved by removing their name from that organization of which we're at war. the original military commission act passed in 2006 made it clear that the unlawful enemy combatant definition covered

hostile groups -- quote -- "including a person who is part of al qaeda or associated forces." close quote. so let's be clear about what removing al qaeda from the definition would have meant in the legal proceedings related to detainees. it will cloud them under uncertainty and ambiguity. judges, whether military or civilian, will have to second guess whether al qaeda members are truly eligible to be held as enemy combatants. this is not an unjustified concern. let me tell you about just one case where a federal judge questioned whether an al qaeda member who fought in the jihad could still be held as an enemy combatant. on april 15th, of this year, judge hovell, of the u.s. district court for the district of columbia, granted habeas corpus petition of yasim jamad

jahard -- habeas corpus petition is a right of a person in the united states who's held by the government to ask why they're being held. and it's referred to in the constitution. and many of my colleagues have said you're denying these prisoners habeas corpus petition. denying them. taking away something that they are entitled to. and i would just point out that's not correct. nobody ever understood habeas corpus as referred to at the founding of our republic as something that applied to people captured in war against the united states. that was never what it meant. it is only a most recent incorrect definition of habeas

that applied it to people who are trying to kill americans and are at war against americans. some of the courts are confused on this in my view. and congress has been a bit confused about it also. but judge huvell, unwisely, i think, concluded that the united states could no longer hold mr. bazard, because he no longer posed a realistic risk of joining the enemy in my opinion. -- in his opinion. he's not involved in the war. he's sitting safe and comfortable in the district of columbia. the execution of the war is placed in the hands of the men and women in the military who protect our country, whose lives are on the line. so this judge reached this conclusion because bazard was cooperative while in custody, he health, at guantanamo bay. in her decision in 2009, judge

huvell admitted the many salient facts, she didn't mention this, that showed why the obama administration and the bush administration before it opposed this man's release. according to unclassified administrative review board records bazard was closely associated with al qaeda and directly linked to osama bin laden. he admitted to, one, traveling from yemen to afghanistan to join the jihad -- quote -- "yes, i did go to afghanistan for the jihad." close quote. training at the al qaeda run camp near kandahar near afghanistan. three staying at osama bin laden's house in kabul when the u.s. bombing began -- quote -- "it was osama bin laden's

private house." close quote. four, meeting with bin laden himself on numerous occasions, five, responding to osama bin laden's call to remeet at bora bora and, six, being in the cave with osama bin laden atorr bin . they will second guess the military. congress certainly shouldn't weaken these -- this act anymore and give them anymore ability to undermine our efforts. to the contrary congress should be crystal clear that membership in al qaeda qualifies a detainee for unprivileged belligerent status. my amendment would remove -- did remove any doubts over the

detention of anyone who is a member of al qaeda or served in his aid. my amendment will make clear that cases like this should not happen again. simply put if you are a member of al qaeda, you're going to be detained. just like people captured, nazi army, prisoners of war that were captured in world war ii, they were held until the war was over. so i urge my colleagues to -- to -- to think about these things. to make sure that we have our minds right in the containingers tha--dangers that our country f. and make sure that this language that was taken out of the bill and put back in the bill and keep al qaeda as a name by which we're at war against, that that

doesn't get removed by the conference committee. and i'm going to be watching. and i think it's a big deal. the conference committee. the house and senate will meet. oftentimes they make changes in the bills. and it will come back to the floor. we'll have no more ability at that time to amendment it. so i'm going to watch. and i think the american people need to know that we're not confused in our thinking. we know who we he are at war against. and that we're committed to this effort and that we're supporting our fabulous men and women who place their lives at risk for us and not undermining their effort by creating circumstances in which federal judges can treat military captives as ordinary criminals with all of the rights pertaining thereto. mr. president, i thank the chair and would yield the floor. and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call:

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mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: first of all, mr. president, we really appreciate the courtesy of the presiding officer and the patience awaiting until we got all this stuff done. mr. president, not withstanding passage of s. 1390, i ask

unanimous consent that amendment 1516 be further modified with the changes to the instruction line. the presiding officer: without objection. the presiding officer: i ask unanimous consent that s. 1390 as passed by the senate on july 23 be printed. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that at 3:00 p.m. monday, july 27, the senate proceed to the consideration of calendar number 116, h3183, energy and water appropriations. immediately after the bill is reported, senator dorgan be recognized to offer a substitute amendment, the text of which is s. 1436 as reported by the committee. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. con. res. 35. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. con. res. 35, authorizing printing of the pocket version of the united states constitution. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will

proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the krupbt resolution be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, any statements relating thereto appear at the appropriate place in the record as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask consent we proceed to s. res. 223. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 223 designating september as national child awareness month and so forth. the presiding officer: without objection the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to and motion to reconsider laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid:. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the judiciary committee be discharged from consideration of s. res. 215. and the senate proceed to its consideration. that's s. res. 215.

mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to calendar number 124, s*s 151 -- s.151. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s.151, a bill to protect indian arts and crafts through the improvement of applicable criminal proceedings and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask the bill be read a third time, passed, the motion to reconsider laid upon the table, there be no intervening action or debate and any statements relating to this matter appear in the record at the appropriate place as if given. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i now consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from consideration of s. res. 215 and we now proceed to that matter. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 215 designating august 8, 2009, as national marina day.

the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, there be no intervening action or debate and any statements relating to this matter be placed at the appropriate place in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask we proceed to h.r. 2632. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 2632, an act to amend title 4, united states code to encourage the display of the flag of the united states on national korean war veterans armistice day. the presiding officer: without objection the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the bill be read three times, passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, there be no intervening action or debate and any statements relating to this matter be placed in the record as if given.

the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent that we proceed to s.1513. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s.15 13-rbgs a bill to provide for additional temporary extension of programs under the small business act and the small business investment act of 1958 and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. reid: i ask consent the bill be read a third time passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, any statements relating to this matter appear at the appropriate place in the record as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid:. mr. reid: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to executive session to consider calendar numbers number 282, 284, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 285, 293, 294, 295,

296, 297, 298, 299, 3 hundred, 301, 305, 307, 306, 308. mr. president, we'll go over those again. 282, 284, 28 5, 286, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 29 3, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 301, 305, 306, 307, 308. and all nominations on the secretary's desk in the foreign service. further that the agricultural committee be discharged of presidential nomination 333, 333, that the senate then proceed to its consideration.

that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table en bloc, and that no further motion be in order and any statements relating to this matter -- these matters appear at the appropriate place in the record as if read. and that the president of the united states be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate then resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: mr. president, on monday we're going toe move to another appropriation bill. senators dorgan and bennett will manage that. and i think it's -- it would be

wise at this time for me to tell everyone that i think we will not have a vote monday. there is a lot of work to do on that bill. and we will have some votes before noon on tuesday. but we he won't have any votes on monday. i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it adjourn until 2:00 p.m. on monday, july 27, following the prayer an pledge, journal of proceedings be approved to date, morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for use later in the day and there will be a period of morning business until 3:00 p.m., with senators permitted to speak up to 10 minutes each and the senate proceed to 116, s. 1383, the water appropriations act for

fiscal year 2010. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. reid: if there is no further business to come before the senate, mr. president, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 2:00 p.m. on monday, july 27th.

coming out in about a half hour, 2:30 eastern time today's white house briefing with press secretary robert gibbs. we will have to live right here on c-span2. until then a discussion on health care and the economy from today's washington journal. >> host: democrat of ohio we saw the president yesterday talking about health care but the headlines this morning saying missed deadline may be some missed opportunities. >> guest: yeah, the deadline the president really set is that he wanted this bill on his desk in october, early november. we can still do that. a lot of us wanted to see it passed at least each house in

july, early august. frankly the finance chair has not gotten his work on. the help committee i sit on i sit on i think passed a very good health insurance bill that protects what works in the system and fixes what's broken, and i think we are on the way. so this isn't a major setback. i wish we would move faster. the people that caution us to slow down are the people that have killed health care in many cases the last 40 years. they say slow down, slow down. if we wait until next year it makes it that much harder because the interest groups way and in a bigger we and the amount of money spent on lobbying from the health insurance and pharmaceutical is higher than ever before and it shows unfortunately. >> host: as you know you've been around this town a long time. will the amount that effort in august and can that be real efforts for which your side of the aisle is hoping for, major changes? >> guest: they are going to mount those in august anyway. the original plan was to pass in

july, august, come back in september, october for the conference committee where leaders meet, people involved on issues of both houses meet and come up with a final plan so they would have mounted that opposition in august anyway. it always happens. the drug companies, insurance company, medical interests are much too powerful in this town. there's quite be just as many grass-roots activists including people who were part of the obama campaign in year ago, a number in the millions will be talking to members of congress over august and september, too, pushing for strong public option which senator white house and i wrote in the senate version of the bill that a month ago. and other parts of good cost controls on this bill and all that, and i think we are on our way. >> host: part of the story is from the so-called blue dog democrats you served with of the house of representatives. how much influence do they have on the house version especially the energy and commerce committee? >> guest: there is still a lot

of unresolved questions. you know, how do we pay for it, how exactly in the house to they want to read the public option? what do they do for employers that might think who are not insuring their employees now or in players that might dump their employees on to either the public option or the private plans that are in the so-called insurance exchange or gateway? but there are a range of different things. that's what the democratic party is all about. the republican party is a narrow ideological party and the reason they're in a small minority. the democrats are much broader from urban democrats and the northeast and california to more conservative southern democrats. you know, the national republican -- if you look at the house republicans more than 40% are from the old confederacy on the border states. they are a much narrower party so there will always be disagreements within the democratic party and that's healthy. that's why we win elections. it's difficult to govern but

people come to the table because nobody in the end -- i don't think anybody in congress who's a democrat wants to stand in the way of the most important domestic issue we've ever done, and in our careers. this is probably the most important vote i've ever made against the iraq war seven or eight years ago but the second most important vote i might likely ever cast is on health care because it's something we've tried to do since franklin roosevelt really. >> host: put your own head line on this story. >> guest: for now -- [laughter] i don't write. >> host: door wife does. >> guest: my wife does -- >> host: i ask because blended wine, blown chance -- where is the story that will come out of all this? >> guest: the democrats are carrying on putting it there's discussions, there's very animated discussions within the caucus of the senate. i am sure there's those same discussions in the house.

i think it's very complicated. there's so much money at stake and so much history at stake if he will and i think democrats sensed that in having it the deadline i guess a better headline might be deadline looms because the deadline, thinking october, november to get it to the president's desk will focus our mind just like taking a test in school focuses your mind. okey this test is to mauro i've got to really be ready. we all too much perhaps operate under that but it's not a question of slowing down. we don't know what to do because we've been working on this you can say starting with roosevelt, certainly starting with johnson. clinton wasn't successful in the early 90's but it's something we know well and worked on and have enough information and there's no reason to slow it down other than coming to agreement. but i think we are still on october, november.

>> host: sherrod brown with the president talking about health care yesterday. you can send an e-mail natural at bac c-span.org. this is from conservative for patients' rights. here's how they are playing on the health care issue. >> some of congress's health care plans could squeeze you four ways. it could raise taxes by $600 billion. it could add a trillion to the federal deficit. new rules could heighten your health insurance premium 95%. you still might end up on their government-run health plan. you've been squeezed enough, say no to a government-run health plan. >> host: how would you respond to that? >> guest: there's not much true to that. it's not government-run program. people will have more choices. what's always left out of the

equation from them is what happens if we do nothing? what happens if we do nothing as the small business continues to get overwhelmed by these costs. individuals lose their health insurance in increasing numbers. 14,000 americans every single day are losing health insurance. 14,000 every single day and conservative interest groups funded usually by the drug companies and insurance companies and medical insurance run ads like that protecting their interest, protecting their profits, and we end up with continuing to spiral down in this health care system. big companies are having great trouble internationally competing because of health care costs. tax payers are getting -- we are spending twice as much as any other country in the world per-capita yet our life expectancy isn't as good. infant mortality rates are lower than any other country. as the president issued in the cleveland clinic and he could

have gone to the university hospital in cleveland to see the same kind of really good care words contained cost really well, not quite good enough anywhere but pretty well. but it's going to get worse if we don't do something in this really does give people the choice. it says nobody's pointed forced into a government-run plan as they say. they would rather have increasing insurance administrative cost of 15, 20% when medicare and the administrative costs are 3% and 4%. the government has done a good job running insurance compared with the private industry has done but we are giving people a jury's going to the public plan or they can go to any number of private plans. >> host: as part tweet singing are you planning to tax me or my employer for my health care coverage? >> guest: no, there is no way this bill passes if it taxes and insurance benefits. i won't vote for it. and number of members of both houses who very much want health

insurance reform will simply not vote for it if it taxes benefits. >> host: north carolina mike is on the phone with senator sherrod brown of ohio. >> caller: hello, good morning and good morning, senator brown. you know, that what you just addressed is my main concern, the taxation of my health care benefits. so far i haven't heard kathleen sebelius, because i'm very concerned about health care in our country but there hasn't been i know by this leedy. i just believe the argument on the other side talking about in the republican choice. well, my argument to that is what choice do you have when you have no health care at all? >> guest: that's exactly right. first of all kathleen sebelius, we met with her yesterday about this group of loss. she doesn't have a vote in the senate or the house and the

answer is we are not going to -- i will look you in the eye, look at the camera and say we will not tax health insurance benefits. i'm not going to vote for a bill like that. a large number of us in both houses are saying that and believe that. there are other ways to do that particularly since people -- my wife works for a newspaper and they all took a 12% pay cut at newspaper which means they've gotten no raised from five years ago basically most people at paper, many people across the country have seen no raise three or four years we are not going to turnaround and tax the benefits so they had a loss the last three or four years. it's just not fair. the president promised not to do that. we are not going to do it. in terms of the congressman from virginia said, he is the party of no. br against everything. they opposed the creation of medicare and if we wait to get republicans in 1965 to pass medicare we would still be

leading. it's not that they are bad people but they have a different philosophy. they don't think government should be involved in health care period. i think they've done good with medicare. it's not perfect by a long shot. but we are going to say everybody's going to get insurance and everybody's going to get a choice. if you're happy with the insurance you're in, keep it and it won't be taxed. if you are dissatisfied or don't have insurance at all you can choose etna or if you are in know how you you can choose mutual or the public auction, any of those and have decent health insurance and a more reasonable cost than you are paying now. >> host: ann is from texas. good morning. >> caller: yes i just have this comment. i am a republican. i am privately insured. but using the president's argument that those of us with private insurance or those of us paying taxes that we are already paying for those who are under

insured and uninsured i would be more respectful if either party, republican or democrat would come out and say the only reasonable, the only rational answer is the single-payer. dennis kucinich -- i wouldn't have even voted for dennis kucinich. he is the one that makes most sense. there's no way the private insurance can continue to cover those who are underinsured or uninsured or the fact that its tax payer dollars that is paying for medicare anyways. >> host: thank you, ann. >> guest: good point. i don't disagree with you about that but i know the single-payer or medicare for all is another way to see it is off the table. it's not being discussed. presidents now supporting it so it really is barely debated. the other point you made them do have private insurance, you are

through your private insurance and taxes are paying for people who are uninsured who go to the emergency room or the hospital, but ever because somebody's got to pay for that so the cost shifting, the hospital needs to collect more money from you in order to pay for the uninsured. that is why insuring everybody makes sense. you get everybody in the system so than the insurance you now have is no longer paying for those who are uninsured. the tax dollars you have are not paying for those who are uninsured. there will be subsidies and all that for those that are uninsured but if everybody is in the insurance pool it works better for everybody. that's why the president argues if we get everybody covered under his plan or the plan we covered in the health care committee, you end up able to stabilize maybe even reduce premiums for those who are privately insured because you no longer will be spending -- no longer will your care help to pay for the care of others. >> host: donaghey and email from new hampshire saying those of us watching health care

debate in america >> guest: well, it's frustrating. it's frustrating if you're watching from the outside, it's frustrating if your part of it on the inside. we had a major debate in my committee on something called biologics, the most expensive drugs like remicade, jobs that are 50, $70,000 a year, they are not the kind of old chemical drugs that we were used to, chemical compounds. they are live cell organisms expensive and effective for it dormitory arthritis, cancer. the drug companies should their power as they always on trying to arrange those prices and

three >> host: how do they show their power? >> guest: they show their power because every time we've always tried on senator mccain had an amendment on free importation which would allow the aggie best to go to canada and allow u.s. retailers to go on the world market by go to countries which safely regulate their drugs to buy them because they are cheaper in those countries because they have a better group way of logging from negotiating with drug companies. my amendment to allow generics to allow to put competition into the sale of these biologic drugs, these 20,000, $50,000 a year drugs was defeated overwhelmingly and large part again because of the power of the pharmaceutical companies. succumb they've spent more money lobbying than almost anybody else and it's continuing -- it continues to be a battle and is first reading from the outside but it's also -- we still wrote a good bill in this committee.

we are still on track. our bill would go to the president i think people would be very satisfied with how we have reformed this health insurance system. >> host: drug companies may argue they need that monopoly to pay back expenses to treat these -- pay for these drugs. >> guest: lay-bon drug company study that shows you what innovation you don't give a monopoly protection for 12 years. they've already got a patent that goes 20 years and on top of that understanding the patent is they don't get the full patent time because part of that is the drug development and approval process but say they get seven or eight years this is on top of their patent protection. degette monopoly protection. so that nobody can compete with them. nobody has that protection of that land anywhere in the entire economic system, not even the pharmaceutical companies on the so-called chemical drugs let alone anybody else in the industry. often drugs don't have it, nobody has the kind of monopoly protection, chris is trying to

give to these biologic drug companies and it's outrageous. it's absolutely outrageous credit >> host: for senator brown of ohio next is george from wyoming. good morning. >> caller: good morning. what i am wondering is why if the democrats have control of the house and they have control of the senate and the president is on board with health care that we can't get this passed? >> guest: that's a very good question it's mostly because of the democrats don't agree at this point. we passed a strong bill and one of the committees in the senate. the other committee the goal of the chairman is to get bipartisan support. i don't think it can get bipartisan support on a bill the american people are going to want because to get bipartisan support you need to frankly if i can speak bluntly make too many concessions to the drug companies and insurance companies and other medical interests to get strong bipartisan support because of the influence that the drug companies and insurance

companies have with rank-and-file republicans in congress. not rank-and-file republicans or mansfield or scenes feel or my mother rank-and-file republicans to sit in the house and senate, so the only way -- i think some point every democrat has to step up and say we are going to do this bill right. it's bipartisan is a great thing. i want to get bipartisan support but the important thing is to get a good strong bill with a strong public option with cost controls so that we don't keep overpaying drug companies or insurance companies. we've right strong insurance rules so no longer can the insurance company game with pre-existing conditions and the discrimination they do want to push people that might be too expensive for them to cover out of the health care system. all of those things we need to do and democrats need to step in the next six weeks and history is going to judge the president and judge us on whether we write a good strong progress of health

insurance reform bill and we did it in the health education labor pension committee with chairman dodd. the rest of the senate hasn't done it. the house has mostly done had they are not there yet but they are going to get there. >> host: let me put some numbers on the screen and ask about the economy and as a way of comparison to show the audience with the unemployment was like in ohio in june of last year, 6.4%. this year, 11.1%. the nationwide average now 9.5% expected to reach double digits later this year and in your home state in particular, toledo with an employe married a 14.2%. cleveland and cincinnati, with just over 10%. will this be a jobless recovery? >> guest: i think people are concerned about this. i don't think we are close to starting recovery yet. it is a job -- fighting we need to focus more on what creates jobs. to me everything is about jobs whether it is the climate change bill, whether it can help us

going to be much more successful with alternative energy. you mentioned toledo. toledo has more jobs and solar energy than any in america so there's a lot of things in cleveland where the president was yesterday just off the coast of downtown cleveland there will probably field of wind turbines in fresh water than anywhere in the world. i think ohio's economy is better than we were in 1981 after that recession that we are in trouble now. and it's i think if we hadn't done the auto and the bank bailouts that congress did that president bush asked with the bailout and that president bush and obama asked for the autos i think we would be an even worse shape, but we are -- it is a troubled economy. there's no way around that i think we are beginning to see good science, but we are not where we need to be on jobs especially. >> host: air and is on the phone from branford connecticut.

good morning independent line. >> caller: good morning, senator. on the health care that me give you two examples but i'm worried about and why the american people have turned away i have $8 million payroll, 20 employees and i am paying $12,000 a year for health insurance for my employees. that's $240,000 a year negative paying. in troubled times i'm trying to hold on to the american work force not only working 30 hours a week, but under dodd's plan a penalty of 80% of renault provide health care for my employees. that's $80,000 a year, paying 240,000. why don't i just put them on the

government plan you have and see $460,000 -- >> guest: yep, two things. what is the house plan has 8%, the bill that came out of chairman dodd's committee and i think he did an extraordinary job in representing the people of connecticut and representing all of us and getting this put together. you're point is well taken. what happened in massachusetts is employers didn't dump their employees even though the penalty was significantly less than 8% of payroll if they didn't insure their employees. there's other reasons employers provide health insurance. some are going to do that but most understand it is good for morale to offer health insurance and attract good employees when you offer health insurance and i think if employ years think in terms of dumping their employees they would have if they are offering decent health insurance on their hands rather than just

the economic, rather than the economic bottomline on why employers, why they insure their employees, so the experience at massachusetts shows that isn't likely going to happen with very many people, and for those it does there will be a decent government plan that may give people the option of private or public and they will still have insurance. the goal was a competitive economy where jobs is always the bottom line. but to offer everybody in this country health insurance. >> host: but it's jim's point of view from this tweet to offer single payer on the road. tells the truth. >> guest: all the things conservatives say about public option, exactly what they say about medicare and exactly what they've said about social security, 75 years ago the fact is we're going to set up the public option to keep the insurance companies honest.

look at -- i know almost nobody that doesn't have somebody in their family or a close friend who hasn't battled with the insurance companies at one time or another in their lives on their health insurance. and what putting in this public option will do, we are not subsidizing the public option any more than the private plans. once the public option is up and running they will pay back federal dollars they got to get it up and running and then competing on even basis. we are not gaming the system some people choose public over private but we know how private insurance companies use pre-existing condition and game the community rating system and discriminate and to all the things they do to keep from insuring people that might be expensive to them. but putting the public option in there will make an honest, it will make them compete. we've seen that in other cases and that's the way it's going to be set up. we are not pushing people into the public option. people will have a full range of choice. i don't get it. i thought conservatives love

competition. the only like competition at its insurance companies gaming the system that's the only kind of competition they like, i don't get that. >> host: eric is on the line. good morning with senator brown calling on the republican line. >> caller: yes, senator brown, a few politicians would pass tort reform you could save 20% of health care. and you speak about the pharmaceutical lobbyists. what about the union's? the reason you wouldn't vote for taxing health benefits is because the union told you all to. >> host: let me take the first point about tort reform because a broken axle in the "washington post" editorial syndicated columnist he says tort reform would yield tenet riggins ratings yet you cannot find that in the democratic bills and obama brith not a word about the issue in the full hour of his health care news conference.

>> guest: i heard i think it was eric say that 20% of comedy would save 20%. i've never heard that number. i've heard a lot of exaggerated numbers but the fact is it's a small percent. some states have tried various kinds of caps and caps and up hurting the people who are hurt the most in the medical system. so i simply don't think they work and i don't think they are fair. i think there are legal reforms we can do in this bill and things people are looking at. the second part, and i can support some of this. the second part of your question the unions told me, you don't know me, you can make an accusation like that it's simply not true. i don't think i mentioned -- i mentioned my wife's the place that she works its capital for this country where people have seen while the rich have gotten richer while the people on top have gotten wealthier and wealthier the broad middle class, really brought 90% below the top 10% have not seen a raise in the last really during the entire bush years and i know

you don't like to hear that as a conservative but the fact is that they haven't during the last decade, people haven't gotten a raise and i will be darned if i think that people who haven't gotten a raise from eight to ten years in the broad middle class ought to have their health care, their health benefits taxed. it's just not fair. it hits union members hard because they've given up wages today in order to have health insurance and pensions. that's what union negotiations have become. we will take less money today for wages but we want health care when we retire and we want health care now, health care. but we more than union members. it's the middle class that has gotten squeezed because the tax cuts for the middle class and the iraq war and this deregulation conservatives worshiped at this altar of deregulation that and i will be

darned if i'm going to tax people that have already suffered so much. 35. what is the biggestç difference between each side of the capitol? guest: the biggest difference is that as a senator, your staff is big enough and skilled enough. incredible is what i see when i sit around our staff meetings once a week with a couple of dozen people in my office network in washington, and in ohio, too. we are able to address some in a different things at once because -- i am not complaining. i love this job, but it is a hard time to be in the senate and represent a state like ohio because every day in mansfield, my hometown there is the most efficient gm plant we are fighting it, it is hard and every day there is an issue like that we are able, everything in this state happening good and bad of we are trying to be involved everywhere

we can to help local people work with them and partner -- >> will leave this portion and take you to the briefing room at the white house live for the president is speaking with reporters. >> you've got to do the job yourself. i wanted to address you guys correctly because over the last day and half obviously there has been all sorts of controversy around the incident that happened in cambridge with professor gates and the police department there. i actually just had a conversation with sergeant jim crowley, the officer involved, and i have to tell you that as i said yesterday my impression of him was that he was an outstanding police officer, and a good man, and that was confirmed in a phone conversation and i told them that. and because this has been

ratcheting up and i obviously help to contribute to ratcheting it up, i want to make clear that in my choice of words i think i unfortunately gave an impression that i was maligning the cambridge police department and sergeant crowley specifically and i could have calibrated the words differently and i told this to sars in crowley. i continue to believe based on what i have heard that there was an overreaction in pulling professor gates at his home to the station. i also continue to believe based on what i heard a that to professor gates probably overreacted as well. my sense is you've got to good

people in a circumstance in which neither of them, were able to resolve the incident in a way that should have been the way they would like to be resolved. the fact that it has garnered some much attention i think is a testimony to the fact that these are issues that are still very sensitive here at america. so to the extent my choice of words did not eliminate rather contributed the two more media frenzy i think that was unfortunate. what i would like to do that is make sure everybody steps back for a moment, recognizes that these are to do some people, not extrapolate too much from a fax. but as i said at a press conference the be mindful of the fact that because of our history, because of the difficulties in the past,

african-americans are sensitive to these issues. even when you've got a police officer who has a fine track record on racial sensitivity and the interactions between police officers in the african-american community can sometimes be fraught with misunderstanding. my hope is that as a consequence of this event this ends up being what is called a teachable moments where all of us instead of a pumping up the volume spend a little more time listening to each other and try to focus on how we can and generally improve relations between police officers and minority communities and that instead of pointing accusations we can all be a little more reflective in terms of what we can do to

contribute to more unity. the lord knows we need right now because of the last two days as we have discussed this issue, i don't know if you've noticed but nobody's been ted paying much attention to health care. [laughter] i will not use this time to spend and -- more words on health care although i can't guarantee that would be two next week. i just wanted to emphasize -- one last point of that to make, there are some who say that as president i shouldn't have stepped into this us all because it is a local issue. i have to tell you that that part of and i disagree west. the fact that this has become such a debt -- big thing is indicative of the fact that race is still a troubling aspect of our society, whether i were black or white i think that me

commenting on this and hopefully giving to constructive as opposed to -- understandings about the issue is part of my portfolio. so at the end of the conversation there was discussion about my conversation with sergeant crowley kalin discussion about he and i and professor gates having a beer at the white house. we don't know if that is scheduled yet, but -- [laughter] but we may put that together. he also did not say he wanted to find out of there is a way of getting the press of his lawn and. [laughter] i informed him that i can get the press of my lawn. [laughter] he pointed out that my lawn is bigger than his lawn.

but if anybody has any connections to the boston press as well as national press, sergeant crowley would be happy for you to stop traveling his grasp. all, right? thank you guys. [inaudible conversations] >> i have almost all the confidence in the world wherever i say will not make the news tonight. [laughter] but in my role, i am happy to answer questions. actually marissa handed me my whole lives in the week ahead is in the front pocket and i said i have a sneaking suspicion of the will get to that toward the end. he has not spoken to professor gates. >> to the white house reach out to professor gates to let him know he was going to do this? >> not that i know of a. >> what about an apology from the president?

>> i think the president characterize most of their conversation as something he wanted to have with the officer and i will keep it that way. >> how real was this -- he said a dear, that is one thing to throw out there to make it was a suggestion of a sergeant and i think the president and there probably about five minute phone conversation. >> is he invited the sergeant to come to the white house? >> in about a five minute conversation i had to go back and check my notes, adding it was sergeant crowley suggestion about the beer and i think the president thought i was a good idea. he doesn't know if it is scheduled, but they will work on that. you know how to talk into the microphone, we heard your question. again, i think as the president

said, and i think that is why the invitation is a real invitation is that a moment like this can be used to teach us and be used to have a communication and dialogue that is constructive and outside in the moment. >> when did the president make this phone call? and what event your conversation and that prompted him to do back? >> i'm not aware of that. sometime earlier today but i don't know the exact time and that he was -- the call happened lasting about five minutes. let's see, i want to send ahead, so it was probably a round just recently to 15 or 220. can i do know if you plan to

speak with the professor gates? >> i don't know but i will check on that. >> father is a significant for the president to come back and address a question from a press conference because of its major race, what kind of communications or calls have gone to the white house and what kind of outpouring have you got from the community for the president to make this decision and did police organizations from around the country help to make this decision for him to come out and make this statement? iraq i was on the road yesterday so i don't know what engagements the white house had yesterday with groups or individuals. i think i did see on the correspondence charts that we get that health care was the biggest topic again yesterday in terms of comments and concerns, but that is all the information i have on that. >> a follow-up on that, since he acknowledges that race is still an issue and there are sensitivity still about race,

the issue is proven, is he thinking about possibly doing something along the lines of a bill clinton possibly having a conversation on race? >> i think, i think in many ways the question and, the answer, the events, i think we are having that conversation. i don't think it is a separate initiative a. i don't think it is an announcement. i think the president was said that these are important issues that play out in our daily lives and will and should be discussed in our daily lives. >> on listening to him a sure sounded like he made an apology to the officer. it would be fair to characterize it as bad? >> i think he understood and as he told you all that his words

contributed to this being ratcheted up. i think there is a reason that the news media is on the sergeants' lawn. and he wanted to make sure to let him know that the word choice was not one that he thought was probably in hindsight the best choice. >> or you in the room and during the call? did you hear him issued an apology? >> cuban quote me and him, you don't have to parse words. i feel comfortable with the answer i just gave you. >> did you hear him make an apology? >> i am not going to -- if the president does want to characterize it in his conversation he is having with you all, i'm not going to get ahead of him. >> prior to the president going out for that press conference, obviously you sat down to go

over the questions asked for the evening in. and you rehearsed dancers or discuss how he would answer questions. did this come up as part of the preparation that gates matter and if so, was his word choice as stupid, was that the runaround? >> i will give the process of all thus. >> but what was discussed about the question that when that came up? >> i'm not going to get into that. my opinion on that does not matter. >> i think the president hopes there will be a meeting. i think the president hopes that again in this is a moment that can be used to discuss the issues. >> when you expect him to reach out to professor gates. >> i said i would check, so i don't know the answer to that. >> was part of this statement will he take back other than the words stupidly? >> again, you just heard from the president. i will quote him liberally and i

still want to get into parsing him. >> you said that african-americans are sensitive to the issues and i want to make sure he is referring to is he referring to mr. gates and his response or his the referring to the president's own response to the issue and to the question at? >> i think he is talking about at large, i think he is -- i don't think there is -- i know that statement is not speaking about an individual situation, he is talking about the reason that he came to work on an issue like this in the states senate was because of, because of historical attention. but that is not an individual thing, that is that large. >> what i mean is when she asked the question, he could have dodged but he dove in in i wonder if he is saying that is because of sensitivity he feels.

>> i think he addressed that up here and saying that he has heard of those that sent maybe because it was a local issue is something that he should have or could have steered around and i think he was clear on that here. >> a quick question, as far as the issues concerning african-americans, they said for the administrator, but also they did it off her approval of him six months in office and the question is a small businesses are concerned some of them have concerns at how they will pay for their employees and the health issue related to them that they want to hear from the president in the future. >> let me address health care and small business -- obviously this is a topic that the president has been quite a bit

of time on the town the week in meetings in town hall meetings and meetings with the blue dogs and meetings here today. obviously millions of businesses are shoveling with a high cost and the skyrocketing costs of health insurance, that gets harder and harder each day to provide for their employees. i think one of the things the president wants to see gavin speetwo his ideas that will cut costs for small businesses and allow those that are providing insurance for their employees to be able to do some more affordably for themselves and hopefully encourage others that want to do that, but have shied away from a because of the cost to be able to do that as well.

>> what about secretary clinton in india, what sort of message came from the president that she is now back and giving a report. do we have a new broad and u.s. in the relationship? >> well, i have not talked with the secretary of state. i know she met with the president for lunch today to discuss the trip, but i have not had a chance to discuss the trip. >> what is the lesson, what does the president want to take away from us? >> as you said yesterday and today, and i think as even he said at a news conference, he had a call coming in and he had an officer responded to a call about a potential break in. and as i said yesterday as well, there was clearly a point some time after that where both sides

could have stepped back a little bit and maybe we would not have had all of this play out the way in has. i think he understands the enormity of the job that law enforcement has and i think he spoke today about the tension that has been there in some african american communities with law-enforcement. working together and having that dialogue and communicating we can make things better for both involved. >> what is he going to do over the next month to keep up the momentum of health care? >> well, we will go through some in the week ahead, i know we've got -- he will tell on wednesday to raleigh, north carolina and

not yet picks city in virginia. two continue to discuss health care reform and the need to get into, the need to get it done. i think it is safe to say that we had always assumed the president would continue to talk about this and other import issues on the economy and energy even while congress was back at home, so it will be a busy month of that. >> west region and? >> it was this morning and not yet confirmed,. >> i have never heard of and not pick city. >> this southwest of south virginia, if i knew where it was -- >> [inaudible] >> not unless you can pinpoint not yet confirmed virginia can i thank you, robert. one of the things that has come up since the the president's statement at the news conference

is health care reform plan will not add to the deficit, is a lot of from six days before with the cbo study signed by its director, who said that the plan he turned and 3200 and an active and would add $239 billion to the deficit by 2019. what ed is in the administration's reaction to the cbo scoring? >> well, i don't have anything specific on what they say happens in a 10 year of that tenure windows. i can simply reiterate for you with the president has now said the on any number of occasions that health care reform legislation he said it will not add to the deficit and he means that. >> so he disagrees with the director? >> why would he -- he is not evaluated from a budgetary

perspective and a h.r. 3200, that is not his job at. >> one other question is a housekeeping matter. based on this morning, are you going to restore the gaggle on the briefing? >> i look for a to it and have enjoyed a meeting with you all on almost constant basis. [laughter] no, i hope so. i hope so in a way that we can meet some of your earlier deadlines, talk about issues off-camera and hopefully margaret will continue to bring doughnuts. >> if the president has ever had any personal experience that he spoke about in the last couple days of his time in cambridge when he was attending the school at harvard, are you aware of that? >> not that i have heard in the past couple days or i have heard

in the several years i have worked for him and. a thing it was brought up yesterday when i was gasoline that there was -- there's a story in the "chicago tribune" for 2003i think around the time he was working on the issue of racial profiling that he mentions a suspicion of that, but i don't think it makes mention of a specific case. >> has the president referred to professor gates as a friend, how long have they been friends and was the nature of their friendship? >> i don't know how long they have known each other or the depth of that, but i can certainly talk to the president at the end of the panel. >> i was just wondering, do no if the president decided not to keep a bill that has a public auction. >> i think he has discussed in his principles the strong need

to be by choice and competition and his belief that a public auction is providing, and provides that for millions of americans in different how the exchange markets on not going to have access to competitive plans . and as i said that, outline that in his principles. >> increasing pressure about the public auction, it seems a lot of issues that are on health care are that way. >> based on my calculation about half of the savings the president is counting on two-thirds of the health care reform come from medicare and medicaid problems.

>> half of two-thirds. >> thank you. [laughter] given and that medicare itself and is in fiscal troubles, 2017 trust fund and expires, how can the president a counting on anything from medicare? to expand the availability of health insurance. >> one of the reasons it is going bankrupt quickly is the amount of money in the trust fund and it the obligations with which that trust fund is being drawn down on. i think i have heard the president talk a lot about what the status quo means. the status quo means that we are going to continue to spend in or health care is going to continue to climb at a rate of roughly

three times that of increase of three times the rate of wages. that we can continue to spend that this type of money we are spending on the health care and not expected to bankrupt our government. so clearly we have to put medicare on a difference spending trajectory. i'd say the president address the fact that on wednesday the fact that he believes that we can do that without in any way of spreading the quality of benefits and i think that's why the aarp the has come out in favor of health care reform and why the pharmaceutical manufacturers, the drug companies have been noted that we can squeeze some savings out of the system and also put some money into actually filling the gap in medicare that exists in

medicare part b foreseen years on drug expenses and actually doing in a way that is paid for which would be unique for that program and. >> aren't any care -- medicare savings needed to save medicare? >> if you are obligation -- iffier obligations are less you are going to by definition take a trust fund and drawdown on its less rapidly and i think it will extend the life of that and put it on a path towards sustainability that we all recognize it is tremendously important. >> [inaudible] >> well, i think they continue to make so i don't know that i would rush to the act that they have failed. >> he said that they failed.

>> well, i know they are continuing to meet and i'd think everybody in, i know that the meeting that was had here at the white house that lasted three hours was seen as productive and i think they will continue to do that. >> the presence of the only way you get anything done in this town is by setting a deadline. with regard to that no longer an operable deadline, would you like to establish a new one in september, october? >> no demand seriously -- >> i think that we have made progress in many ways because the president did as he has said in interviews over the course of the wic program product and said the summit -- i think he would think of as a meaningful goals for achievement. and i think the president characterize the the data that

senator reid's announcement yesterday was okay because he sees him that we are making progress. he is in regular communication with members of the finance committee met with senator reid and senator baucus said the white house today and what i think both sides about was a productive meeting. regardless of august because i describe this this morning, we are going to, we're always going to have to come back in the fall and reconcile legislation, go to the process again before something got to the president's desk. i think the president continues to believe strongly that we can see it health care reform this year this fall. >> how about passing the end of august -- before recess, the house getting a bill by next friday would be nice to have but

not a demand? >> i think the president is encouraged as long as the end of the administration and those on capitol hill feel like we're making progress and that's where we are. >> with you want to see that bill passed, taking in and out of a knowing air around the energy to get to the blue dog issue? >> i have not talk to our folks. >> what clarification -- >> mean that is all i have to do is call on somebody else? [laughter] >> if you will, to make. >> a chorus. >> would give the president the impression that there was a media frenzy and his message was a going to? a often says he doesn't watch news not, does his staff tell him you need to address this? >> i was with him yesterday, but the reports on cable tv or that

this was taking up a lot of real estate. >> and you told him that and let him know? >> number of people. >> it wasn't one of these things for you talk to a friend of. >> not that i know what. >> was there discussion of him issuing a written statement rather than coming in the it's incredibly unusual what he did today. >> i miss -- miss the opportunity to see you guys? [laughter] the notion that the president -- i don't know who is laughing back there. [laughter] if you laugh like that we will move the up to the front row. the decision to come here and tell you that was the president's decision came i just for clarification, the president has actually apologized to that cambridge police sergeant, has nt? >> i think i answered this free

times. >> can you tell us yes or no? >> i feel comfortable with my answer. >> did he leave the conversation digging confident there will be an agreement or something on reform? >> i think that is the way senators reid and baucus is my understanding have characterized the meeting they feel like they're making progress and i think the president believes that do. and again i think the president as long as the president feels like we're moving in the right direction he feels good. >> the president of the last two days, if congress doesn't act with a deadline because we have evidence generations of congressional history here and you put down a marker you wanted a vote in both houses of congress some weeks ago. you pulled up all the stops. you have press conferences, town halls, impromptu simmons and so

forth and were unable to meet the goal. what is known to happen now over the course of august that's going to change people's minds and move those? >> press conferences, simmons, speeches. in august is not being rejiggered to address health care. we always knew for months that we would be discussing this issue and that it would be, whether a minute to the house and senate before the recess or after the recess that the recess itself would be a critical time in which we would mobilizes the president's voice in travel to address what he feels like is an issue that we can avoid addressing any longer. i thank you have heard him talk this week describing very personal terms what the status

quo means and i describe it today a little as some of issues, the notion that if you don't do anything, if you don't care reform or improvement then everything just days where it is. well, i think the president has taken the last several days to explain to the american people the status quo on health care means more people lose insurance, families pay more money for their premiums, more people are discriminated against based on pre-existing conditions, trying to seek insurance, that is what doing nothing means. i think he will continue to press the case where we're doing nothing means and continue to press the case for the principle of that he has outlined to cut costs for families and small businesses, make it affordable, make it accessible. i think those of the things -- >> is arguing over the course of the last three and four weeks and still reluctance to vote

with the leadership of democrats. >> i think this by that we have had meetings today that we think have been productive. i have no doubt that our staff will be working this weekend with committee members. house and senate side as well as next week on making progress. i think the president certainly is a strong believer and the fact that if you can continue to walk in and work these issues through the sitting down and having that dialogue is important to try to make that progress and he is still optimistic that we can. >> first of all, has a the president expressed and a disappointment that the outrage surrounding issue is exclusively on his word choice in the circumstances of the professor gates address? >> i think the president

explained in his statement when he fouled like he had an necessarily contributed. >> when talking to the president and did he ever talk about a contract between the senate leadership, majority leadership and his administration forces of the bush administration and? >> in what way? >> in terms of a party? >> no, i have not heard of discuss that appear in i have not heard him talk about that. >> can you give a little bit more of a readout on this meeting. was the most late logistics and planning and timetables or also substance? >> there was obviously a committee process discussions as well us -- it was told to me issues of substance dealing with

issues that remain unresolved and the committee. >> in the last few days you have expressed interest in their tax and health care benefits and cadillac plans and in insurance companies that offer that. is that the president expressing still interest in that or supports the idea? >> i don't know exactly whether or not that came up for and what form a? >> thank you. at least 300 people in the country have the swine flu emanate more, how close are we to getting the shots or whenever will have an especially now the fall coming? >> well, i know that there are regular meetings here at the white house hosted the by senior white house officials including

john brennan and others to continue planning for what the president and his administration talked about earlier this year, that what we saw building up and then that i did communities throughout the country and honestly affected countries throughout the world, hit in many ways at the back end of our own police susan. which in many ways probably likely give us a preview of its depth and severity of what we will face come the fall. we are taking steps working with state and local officials, working with communities, working with school districts to ensure that have the best information about what steps can any to be taken to get ready for what we know is coming.

obviously many countries around the world we have seen a preview of the the tax, the taxing major this is going to provide in, the ability with which two this is going to test how the infrastructure. and i know the team is working through decision making in the development of antiviral our production for antiviral in the development for a vaccine in. >> [inaudible] >> their language has not changed much from in the spring and, again and when we faced the situation in, there are a lot of things that we can and need to do to get ready for what we know is going to happen. in many ways in some ways we are fortunate to, that when we experienced this again at like at the end of our floozies and we are not likely to be that likely in the fall and i think

the severity of the flu requires us to be ready at all levels of government to adjust what is clearly going to be a busy flu season. thanks, guys. [inaudible conversations] >> thank you for answering lots of people's questions. >> i am happy to do it. it is my job there and in i am going to tell him not to take that too seriously. the weekly radio address is not surprisingly on health care. and i think there is a briefing call on that in about 20 minutes and we will have that out fairly shortly. the president will spend the wheezing -- weekend in washington with no public events.

you saw the guy is a little bit later tonight with the parade and the marine barracks. on monday morning the president will address the opening session of the first u.s.-china strategic and economic dialogue of the wrong way and building on international trade and commerce secretary clinton will chair the dialogue for the chinese vice premier and state council. later the president will meet in the oval office with the president of international soccer body appear in -- really. >> what will they talk about? [laughter] >> dribbling, a good point. i think the united states as a bid in on the future world cup. and they will discuss that. i know he wants to go but i don't think anybody has

discussed and that. both of us do. the president will also really welcome the wnba champion, detroit shocks, to the white house. it will have a reception for ambassadors. and no details on to say except for attending meetings and an event here as i mentioned on wednesday, the president will hold a visit in raleigh, north carolina and soon to be determined the city's summer in the commonwealth of virginia. on thursday the presidents will meet the president of the philippines here at the white house and have a meetings at the white house here on friday. i think we will do something in the oval office. thanks, have a good weekend. [inaudible conversations]

how is c-span funded? >> publicly funded the. >> donations may become i have no idea. >> government. >> c-span gets its funding to the taxes can get federal funding to make a public funding think. >> may become i don't know can balckout a c-span fonted? america's cable companies. c-span as a public service and a private business initiative, no government mandate, no government money.

>> iraqi prime minister maliki is in washington d.c. this maker for meetings with president obama and state department officials. mr. maliki spoke yesterday at the u.s. institute of peace in washington. we will hear opening remarks from former assistant secretary of state richard solomon, now president of the u.s. institute of peace. this is about an hour. >> let me just say on behalf of the board of directors and the staff of the uss police -- i am pleased all of you are. the room this morning. we have an overflow crowd and for obvious reasons given are distinguished guest in our training academy downhaul and then we are webcasting this event this morning so anybody around the world who has a computer and those our web address will be watching this event as well. i think many of you know that the institute of peace has been working on the ground and iraq up since 2004.

our programs are designed to promote reconciliation, to facilitate their reconstruction of the situation in iraq and our work focuses on a training iraqi conflict managers, promoting the rule of law, promoting interface dialogue and doing the other things that will hopefully facilitate the transition, the war time to a very robust activity ap billing. and is in that context we are honored to have to special guest this morning and to introduce him i want to bring to the podium the chairman of the board of the u.s. institute of peace, robin west. >> thank you, ambassador solomon. i'm very pleased to a knowledge ambassador george moose who is with me, my colleague to my friend and vice-chairman a u.s. i.p. and the other members of the board on the front row.

on behalf of the board of directors of the institute of peace, we are honored to welcome his excellency, prime minister of the republic of a iraq, mr. maliki. to speak today about the situation in iraq. i understand the prime minister will take questions after his speech and the q and a will be moderated by dan, our vice president for post-conflict disability operations has been active in iraq himself some mr. prime minister, welcome and thank you. >> [applause] >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: i welcome all.

>> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and i would like to speak about the experience related to iraq. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: for the past and went through all the stages until today. >> [speaking arabic] a. >> translator: and the major things took place since then appear in an. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and all these changes really took place, and now we go through constitutional and organizational states. >> [speaking arabic] at. >> translator: all the

challenges that we a part of a saying and that the man was was this security. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and as you may know, the terrorism that really came. >> and really occupied by iraq in the sense of making it busy and in order to put iraq backwards. >> [speaking arabic] at. >> translator: and we had the pierce consultation -- confrontation. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and we had a fierce confrontation with that terrorism how laws and we had a fierce fighting. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and when it

really the terrorism it took over because iraq was destroyed in from the past and based on this, they found in a good forum of for them to work in iraq. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and due to that, they tried to create sectarian war and also thankfully related to religions'. >> [speaking arabic] at. >> translator: >> translator: and we are working toward it and forcing

democracy and these are the main goals. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and all of the nationalism is a respected in iraq. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and all the democratic past, we had some memorable the days and elections and we had four major elections in iraq. >> [speaking arabic] and. >> translator:

>> translator: we have the process of rebuilding iraq in the parliament hill system -- the parliament system. >> [speaking arabic] at. >> translator: democracy and iraq is a unit democracy in the region in. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: the democracy confronted in severe objections from other regions in iraq end of the regional states. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and in order to

protect the democratic process and iraq, we had to build a professional systems. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: as we were fighting terrorism we were building systems and building the army. >> [speaking arabic] at. >> translator: and as we were fighting terrorism, we were campaigning to word it rallying all the people of iraq to side with the government and its security system. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: as we were

building on the security in the region and there were rallying the people of iraq in building unions, rallying the tribes and iraq and we have a all of the iraqi people and to integrate as one unity system. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and in order to have a peace and security and to employ of the sectarian, we had to rally the iraqi reconciliation front. >> [speaking arabic] and. >> translator: it is a

strategic opinion toward building iraq. >> [speaking arabic] at. >> translator: >> translator: this is a continuous process and this is really trying to bring back this city and shia living in harmony as they have in the past. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: the national reconciliation really gone that it put the gun bashan for the harmony of the iraqi people. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and part of that is really turning more than

100,000 troops. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and also reenforcing more than 200,000. >> [speaking arabic] and. >> translator: and also we address all of the issues related to the minister is and one of them is the media minister. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and also reconstructed and at the army service to the civilian service. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: as we were

really reconstructing all of that, and we dealt with about more than 96,000. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: in larger group of them have it been now, have joined in the police and army and another portion of them are going to be joining the ministries and other agencies of that eminent. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator:

>> [speaking arabic] >> translator: national reconciliation has achieved a most of the foundation of what is needed for the meaning of the states and especially states that the long. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and one of the challenges facing us is why we are rebuilding our state is politically formed in terms of the rebuilding the institutions.

>> [speaking arabic] >> translator: i am trying my best here. [laughter] we are now heading it towers national reconciliation that can promote the political process that is ongoing. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: ..

.. >> translator: what would be the success, the state is the

ability of the few forces for the security? >> [speaking arabic] >> and the agreement would not have been possible without the national organization. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and the group operation gps forces and iraqi forces. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: it is also support net to the iraqi forces already present. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we have inherited a country so deep in corruption. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: this is one of

the prospects, we have achieved great victory at that level. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we have fought in battle against financial corruption and also political corruption. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: by political corruption i mean the regional interference in the faa of iraq. [speaking arabic] >> translator: or by some people trying an agenda that do not belong with the national interests. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: fighting this corruption is the national awareness among the iraqis of the need to do so.

>> [speaking arabic] >> translator: the success was seen in the latest elections, moving forward the national platform as a substitute for any experience. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: iraqi citizens have proved and demonstrated that he or she is with the national platform. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and therefore the elections at the beginning of next year will be based on this national platform, that would be

along the national tendency forces any other experience. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: success in the national project besides corruption, through the national reconciliation and also -- >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and therefore, it shall be based on security, on the basis of security, economy and services and political systems based on the constitution and therefore we will have this foundation to move forward toward the modern

time of iraq. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and one of the challenges you are facing is the financial crisis, and with this, facing some challenges, the economy providing services to our citizens. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: nevertheless, we have had success in providing purpose and creating a level of income of the iraqi citizens. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: the average income for the iraqis was $500 and today it has reached an average of $4,000. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: for the budget that was, in 2005, around

$24 billion, today is up to $79 billion. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: with electricity sector, that was one of the issues in iraq. today we have the production up with 30%. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we have inherited an infrastructure at the water level, electors in levelland services and sewage systems, all the infrastructure was destroyed because of the war's. in 2008, we were able to boosted. >> [speaking arabic]

>> translator: we have tried to improve the infrastructure in 2009 and improve the services and economic sector. we were affected by the global crisis, global financial crisis because of the drop in oil prices in general. you know that oil has been our sole income in iraq because of the previous regime and the policies that were put in place. >> [speaking arabic]

>> translator: with this trend, we have worked on trying to use the iraqi oil income and set -- sought further production of oil to try to provide the state with further resources. we have sought contracts with various countries and various companies in order to boost the construction of the infrastructure and to try to find a way off of long-term levels. >> [speaking arabic]

>> translator: previously, iraq was known as the land of fire, the land with all these efforts, today iraq is a country where many officials come to visit and have companies and many capitals, come to iraq. this is the country dealing with its regional and international surroundings, a state that is capable of interacting politically, economically and other levels. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: one transformation is the international community today has opened up towards iraq.

>> [speaking arabic]] the return of the ambassadors and opening of embassies that were closed -- >> [speaking arabic]] the visits of senior officials and people to iraq. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we have international and regional conferences in iraq and we will have someone in conference on international facts. that will take place in iraq. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: delegations from major companies and regional companies come to iraq to discuss further cooperation with

us. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: iraq that was, in the past, a place of disturbance and argument, today is a place where a lot of people need to discuss issues. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: our policy is a policy of opening dialogue to the older countries of the world. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we are geared towards finding resolution to all the issues based on dialogue and mutual interest. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: to stay away from interfering in other people's

business and not allow others to interfere in our own business. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: all these achievements highlight what we are today, we are a strong country based on constitution. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and we thank the international committee and all the countries that have cooperated. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: it was a successful experience the international community has embraced, a country that was torn apart by dictatorship. >> [speaking arabic]

>> translator: what you are working on today is furthering the openness towards the international community and various -- >> [speaking arabic]] we are supporting -- >> translator: we are supporting the democratic experience of iraq. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: benefiting both peace and stability in the world. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: and iraq is today an important factor in fostering the peace and security of the world. to day iraq has become a peaceful democratic country that relies on this. >> [speaking arabic]

>> translator: our war on terrorism has given us a great experience. we hope the international community will benefit from our experience and cooperate with us, draining the rules of financing for terrorism and join us in fighting terrorism. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: our fight to work against powers within that issue. we ask the international community to help in our efforts and to help us with respect to a resolution and to move us out of

chapter vii. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: these other transformations facing iraq but i do not want to paint a rosy picture and say we will not have challenges. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we still have a challenges to face. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we are back in a position where we can face the challenges. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we are now moving forward in very solid steps with the future. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: there is a long road ahead of us, those who

build a democratic state, and infrastructure, social infrastructure that needs to be enhanced is a challenge. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: nevertheless the whole world can seen and witnessed our achievement, we have achieved great strides at the democratic level with respect to preliminary country. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: the success of the election has been a great indicator that we have succeeded as a democratic state and we are moving forward. >> [speaking arabic]

>> translator: we are at the stage in iraq, at this level, the will of our people is clearly demonstrated that our people want a democratic life, want to be good citizens and we also want to fight terrorism. thank you very much and i will open the floor to questions. [applause] >> thank you very much mr. prime minister. we are going to take questions from the two microphones, people are already lined up. that is the right thing to be doing. mr. prime minister, you emphasized in your opening remarks your commitment to a

national program for iraq. could you give us an idea of what that will mean for improving relations with baghdad? >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: this is a problem we inherited from the dictatorship that was then dominating in iraq. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: one of the most dangerous issues, a concern for all. >> [speaking arabic]

>> translator: many weapons, subject in the kurdish people to fetterman was -- >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: if you want to talk about the strategy of citizenship, this has to be away from any sectarian relation or other populations. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: between the kurds and iraqis in general has seen some hoops and it needs to be

resolved. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: perhaps there were many evacuations more than what the reality was, many concerns more than what the reality was, and the stability of faith in iraq, this wouldn't be as much as before. this must be constitutional foundation for proponents of the population. >> [speaking arabic]

>> translator: these are the problems that remain and they must be solved on the basis of the constitution and they must not be solved by force, whether by the iraqi government or the kurdish region. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we will see in the upcoming elections in the next few days, we will see about a dialogue and based on the constitution. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: i am confident we will be able to resolve the

issues with the kurdish region and other provinces. this is a new political system. there will be hoops along the way. >> we will move to the questionnaires and as you to be brief but introduce yourself before asking a question. >> i am the editor of the middle east times. you said in your address that democracy in iraq faces serious opposition in the region. could you explain a bit more where this supposition is coming from? thank you. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: democracy with its true definition is not a system that the region was

accustomed to. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: democracy is a sound solution in a system that is composed of various components. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: all the countries of the region also have components and at the level of abilities in an effect, very religious sector component and the mechanism is in place and

these countries have not reached the level that we have witnessed, our mechanisms for democracy weather at the election level or legislating a constitution that prohibits that. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: perhaps what would be the most serious opposition against democracy would be those accustomed to dictatorship and even within our own society, some of the components within iraqi society. >> [speaking arabic]

>> translator: nevertheless, the opposition which was very strong at the outset, regressing, not as strong as before. a strong positive image of itself, how the state is managed or with respect to the e quality of the citizens. >> thank you. spencer ackerman with the washington independence. i was wondering what you think the u.s./iraqi security relationship ought to be after 2011. should there be any form of residual military presence in iraq? what size and for what purpose and you foresee a situation that forced agreement to be

renegotiated? >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: today the security relation between the u.s. and iraqi, american and iraqis, a relationship based on corp. and salvation twist the agreement. >> [speaking arabic]] pursuant to the agreement in 2011, the americans will take iraq. >> [speaking arabic]

>> translator: if iraqi forces require further training and support, we shall examine this at that time based on the needs of iraq. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: i am sure the prospects and will and desires and prospect of such corporations is found among both parties. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: nevertheless, the nature of that relationship, other functions and the amount of forces will be discussed. >> my name is michael gordon, senior fellow of the institute, a reporter from the new york times. a couple years ago there was concern that the prime minister

might be too week. these days when he is too much criticism of prime minister might be too strong. specifically, there has been concern that the tensions and arrests may be have occurred on the basis of political calculations or security, sons of iraq and other figures, that they are being targeted by troops in opposition to the government. what is your response to these concerns? as iraq moves into its selection process, what steps do intend to uphold the rule of law? >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: fostering the country. >> [speaking arabic]

>> translator: iraqis have confidence in us because based on the law, no sectarian or ethnic background. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we take into consideration and move along, those who kill people or permit killing of people, the process against them. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we have a good judicial system that will be with all the violations for those who commit violations. >> [speaking arabic]

>> translator: you are talking about imprisonment in vienna, bus stops, there will be a prison in any city where there are violations against the law and against the people. >> translat[speaking arabic] [s arabic] >> translator: those are created with political fortunes. there tried against the citizens. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: what would be a

source of concern is if one particular sectarian group for one political group is targeted, but if this is accountability, all those who are committing violations, this is not a source of concern to us even if there are some political forces that are heard. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: what is a source of concern to us is those who have caused women to the widows and caused children to the orphans. these people need to be subject to accountability. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we have sympathy with the victims, the families of the victims, and not those

who are committing crimes. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: this operation is happening away from any politics or sectarian calculations, and in iraq we have dealt with everything without any such consideration. >> with the bbc arabic service, translate my question if you don't mind. [speaking arabic] [speaking

arabic] >> the question from the bbc reporter is the following. mr. prime minister, we heard today that the iraqi government intends to send a message or letter to the embassy requesting the protocol clarification that has to do with the holding of talks between representatives from the government in the opposition in iraq. you have to consider this to be interference in the effort of iraq. have you discussed this issue with president obama? >> to clarify, it was a representative from the turkish government as well.

>> translator: [speaking arabic]] [speaking arabi>> [spe arabic] >> translator: the u.s. government and president obama told us they would not be tolerant against those who kill

iraqi soldiers and kill iraqi citizens. there will not be negotiations by the government or any of its representatives with those killers. there may be some issues here and there but we have open communication with the americans and we continue to talk to them about those issues. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: for those who committed drug actions or involved in similar activities, we will look into all this with the national reconciliation process, the natural association process should find a solution to many of the problems.

nevertheless, for those who were involved, they will have to be deferred to the judicial system to give its opinion and then things will be looked at. >> prime minister, we are hoping you have a couple more minutes. for three questions. we will take them all together. >> trudy reuben of the philadelphia inquirer. mr. prime minister, follow up on the nature of your thinking of relations between the united states and iraq in the future, you talk to victory when u.s. troops pulled back from the city, it seems this relationship is built in your mind, so in the long term, do you want an openly close relationship with the united states, civilian as well

as military or does iraq history and domestic politics require you to distance yourself from the united states? >> eli lilly from the washington times. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: it is a victory and not a failure for the iraqis or the americans. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we strolled from the city's, the iraqi forces and the american forces, we have defeated al qaeda and all the

other games, and later on, the iraqi army will withdraw to its own camps on the streets of iraq. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: after all the success you have achieved with the sofa, we are furthering our success in the strategic framework agreement at all levels, political, economical, cultural, we want and we see a very strong, solid relationship that is open with the americans, there are no internal politics

of iraq that prohibit us from having such a solid relationship with a great and strong country as the united states. >> eli lake, washington times. u.s. forces released late gonzalez from custody. the u.s. times said a member of your release -- your governments in his release was part of a negotiation for 2007. is this account correct? >> i'm going to finish with margaret warner. >> i am margaret warner with pbs. u.s. commanders say iraq has imposed tight restrictions on u.s. troop movements since the june 30th hanover, preventing them from conducting raids with time sensitive intelligence. even when the safety of u.s. troops is at stake. my question is did president

obama raise this with you? can you guarantee that u.s. forces will be prevented from defending themselves in whatever manner they, in their judgment, is most effective? >> [speaking arabic] [speaking arabic] >> translator: with respect to

the relief of hazali, there were not negotiations and this was not a deal. happened in the scope of national reconciliation. thousands of others were also within that national appropriation. the condition was this individual was not involved in spitting blood or any explosion or any act of that nature. with respect to the question on restriction, i am a little bit surprised by the media that raises such questions because there is a security agreement in place between the two parties and this has been agreed upon with in the security agreement. everything was put in place about the movement.

>> [speaking arabic] >> translator: the agreement guarantees u.s. forces to defend themselves. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: cooperation and coordination is still found at all levels. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: teams of support are found side by side by iraqi forces. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: at any moment, iraqi forces would need the support of u.s. forces. this will happen at any moment. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: if there is any problem or anything that arises, whether partial or urgent that

does not mean something that is not tried with the agreement and that does not mean that there is a question of removing assurances from u.s. personnel. >> will you allow us one more? >> thank you very much. >> [speaking arabic] >> [speaking arabic] [speaking arabic]

>> translator: the question from the u.s. institute for peace, the political reform in iraq, you have talked about this, and that there should be the formation of the presidential system in iraq, and some of the consensus formula with in the governance and may not be the best. can you give us your perspective? >> [speaking arabic]

>> translator: we would need an entire lecture to talk about this, but what i mean by political reform in iraq is to build a strong iraqi state that is unified, based on a constitutional foundation, but that does not mean there isn't some particular issue about vocabulary in the constitution and that may need to look at. >> [speaking arabic] >> translator: we have noticed that the consensus based system, the parliamentary system may need to finalize the process of the state.

>> [speaking arabic] >> translator: if we reject consensus based system, that does not mean we are rejecting the need to have alliances among the various factions of the government. >> this weekend watch in 1997 extended interview with the late frank mcporche talking about co book angela's ashes. >> the espionage trial of alger hiss and the house un-american activities committee at 8:00 p.m. eastern and specific on c-span. now a house hearing on the u.s. capitol visitors center, it opened to the public in december of 2008. the appropriations subcommittee on a legislative branch, this is 1 hour and 10 minutes.

>> good morning. i would like to have the fourteenth oversight hearing of the house legislative subcommittee, the committee on appropriations. we have moved into a period, we are at the point where we like to occasionally have a hearing to just check the box and see how things are going and address any concerns that have cropped up since the last hearing. we have 1.6 million visitors since it opened in december which is double the number in the same time period last year. about 80% of the reservations are being made according to the

cdc staff remember offices, 20% of those going through athletic tours, which is bigger than it had been when it first started. we are going to address a number of topics this morning. the continuing evolution of how those are handled will be addressed this morning and i want to make sure that we keep the staff mindful that they are not to interfere with the conduct of the staff, then we have some other issues related to large groups and the nagging issue of how to transport people who are either frail or elderly or both by the west front around to the entrance of the cdc. the witnesses at today's hearing will receive the usual cast of

characters. the acting architect of the capital, good morning, the ceo of visitor services, philip morris, the chief of police, harry dorn, director of physical infrastructure who hopefully won't have a lot to say today, we are past the home stretch, past the finish line and doing our victory that. and barry under of the cdc project. i want to take a personal privilege and thank david for his service. this will be his last hearing, the last week serving the bench appropriations subcommittee. he was a regionally came to us as a loner from gao, and we were

able to successfully recruit him but the part -- smart public service he is coming he didn't give up his right to return, so he preserves his ability to go back. his wonderful wife is working on her mba in atlanta. he spent enough time from her in their brief marriage and wants to join her in atlanta and where he will go back to working for gao. he was led to us to help us finish the conference process, and i have a feeling he will come back one day. he will if i have anything to do with it. thank you for your incredible service. i have never met a person with a better steel trap mind for information and data, who got not only of to speed, but knew

more than some staff, not my staff but some staff. amazingly quick period of time, has worked here like a 30 year veteran for the time that i have been here, appreciate your service. >> thank you, madam chair. it is good to be here with our visitors. thank you for taking time to be a part of the panel. i want to thank madam chair for her willingness to let us have this status of operations hearing, especially concerning the capital center. since it has been open in the last eight months, over a million people have gone through the capital visitors center. it is a new face of the capital.

the introductory part of when people come to the united states council building, that is what they see first. i know that anytime you have a new process or a new facility, you have to work above that, and that has occurred over the last eight months and we are working on that. i want to thank everyone at the visitors center for addressing these special force. that is going in the right direction and we thank you for paying attention to that and how we can better serve our constituents. thank you for having the hearing and a little more of the testimony. >> your statement will be entered into the record. >> thank you, madam chair and members of the subcommittee. i am pleased to be here to provide a status report on the few remaining construction

activities on the capital visitors center but before i do that, let me also echo your comments about dave mulroney. it has been a pleasure to work with you and i hope our paths cross again in the near future. thank you, dave. since the doors to the visitor center were open to the public for the first time on december second, we have seen a remarkable and overwhelmingly positive response to the facility. we have recently marked a major milestone with 1.6 million visitors attracted to the cdc. not only are we accommodating this record number of prisoners but our facility operations and management team is doing an outstanding job maintaining the capital visitors center in keeping it clean, well stocked and functioning at top efficiency. we will discuss the operations later, but i would like to take a moment, the chair and the ranking member, for your

continued leadership and guidance and support on the capital visitors center and the architect office in general. i am pleased to report all basic construction work is essentially complete. we are finishing with a few specific items and anticipate that most of our work will be done by the end of september. this includes the ongoing paper repair work, landscaping, installing the historic trolleys stop on the senate side of the capitol building and completing the final phase of the fire alarm and security system acceptance testing. to better accommodate and assist members and guests in navigating around the capital visitors center we are preparing to install interior and exterior cited as well. madam chair, recall that our punch list started at 16,000 items, and today we have less than 245 items remaining on the punch list. we continue to work closely with the office of compliance, the

united states capitol police and our fire marshal on those specialty items that remain open as well. at this time, there are 92 open change orders we are working on an expected have very few new potential change orders being submitted as our activities are clearly wrapping up in the next few months. most importantly, we are confident that we have sufficient funds on hand to meet all of our remaining obligations on this project. i would like to conclude my testimony by noting that the cdc has continued to be recognized with several awards for the professional workmanship involved in its construction. the team responsible for locating the model of the statute of freedom from the russell building to the emancipation hall, was recognized by the washington building congress in its specialty painting category, an award we are particularly proud of. as always, we appreciate the continued support to the

subcommittee and continue to provide exceptional service to the congress and the visiting public. this concludes my statement and i am happy to answer any questions you may have. >> thank you. without objection, all of the rockets -- >> the morning, i am laryngitis. madam chair, members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify, thank you for your support and guidance during this exciting period in the history of the capital visitors center. this is a result of the guidance we have received from you and your staff, and i think dave lowry for his guidance. we have welcomed 1.6 million visitors to the capital. we have tracked the number of visitors who came to the capital during 2008 and we would like to double that number.

this means dramatic decrease, average time visitors enter the capital. the expanded screening zone, the tireless effort, visitors may enter the business center through the front door or an average wage of just 6 minutes. prior to the opening of the visitors center, visitors to the capital were often told earlier at an a.m. that they had been distributed. perhaps the greatest success story i can tell the days since its opening, no constituent or visitor or family has been turned away from the visitors' center. the efficiency of operation is a testament to the guidance of the committee, and to the dedication and responsiveness of my team. responsiveness is critical as we demonstrated last spring when tours were booked solid, weeks in advance. as the season approached we began receiving 400 calls a day from members seeking to reserve

staff or guide led force to constituents, many of whom were arriving at the last minute. we knew we needed to immediately review, in competition with the committee and other authorizing committees, some of the procedures established -- they have been established prior to the opening of the capital visitors center. these are the adjustments we made. our information in emancipation hall, handling congressional staff requests, staff to service congressional ambassadors in emancipation hall to facilitate staff floors and other 4 requests. additionally we had two for slots on weekday mornings, two in the afternoon, specifically to accommodate for request in the member's office. with these and other measures in place every staff led to a request was a, dated. during at two week period at the height of the spring season,

congressional tours were almost approximately 11,000 people. to facilitate access to the capital we are replacing old shuttle vehicles with more modern units customized to accommodate persons with disabilities. fury than half of 1% of our visitors use the shuttle's, the expanded ones will enhance the bloody to transfer of visitors from the bus drop-off location in the office corner of capitol square to the visitor center. as we continue to refine our operations we have made adjustments on the administrative front. in response to requests to members of congress we have increased the number of congressional training program sessions, we have -- we are developing an on-line version of the training component, close to 4,000 congressional staff have completed the training. to continue to be responsive to members we have instituted a

monthly listening session by congressional staff where they make great questions and concerns about any aspect of our operation. our gift shops and restaurants are enjoying robust sales comparable to other businesses in the district. the congressional auditorium and other congressional areas are being well used by members of congress. in july, 900 events were booked by members in these spaces. we have a variety of educational programs including a series of events and lectures in september. i am proud to testify to the capital visitor center and i am proud of the sites we have received from member's offices. here is what one staffer working from arkansas wrote, i wanted to thank you for an excellent job. we have been calling for last-minute constituents that wanted to visit the cattle in july. from the senator in maryland, thank you for providing an

excellent experience from my constituents. this concludes my statement and i would be happy to answer any questions. >> good morning, madam chair and members of the committee. .. in an expeditious manner while

maintaining the highest level of security. over all we believe the security operations of the capital is at center and capital are working well in order to better focus our sworn resources we recently realigned the division to provide greater flexibility for moving assets to be the influxes and traffic into the various entrances of the capital and capital visitor center. likewise we are continuing the work whether syphilis finally sufficiently screen members, staff visitors to south to the tunnels into the capital and the cbc. in addition to we're continue to work with the architect's office to monitor this abbas transportation plan nora to balance a access of ability to challenge visitors with the security needs of the complex. before i close of like to thank all the men and women of the united states capitol police were the work today to maintain the security of the capitol

complex in order to protect our legislative process. i'm extremely proud of is one of them. in again, out like to thank the members of the committee for inviting me here to testify before you today and i'd be happy to answer any questions you have. >> the gary much. thank you very much. >> thank you madam chair, members of the subcommittee. is predicted that the last summer subcommittee hearing the cbc did open one december 2nd, since then we continue to work on remaining items that reduce the number from about 3,000 at the time of the last year to about 300 today. i've also reduced the number of open change orders to about a hundred. expect most of these items to be corrected by the end of september with only a few items such as cyanogen work in the senate curator's space to be complete by the end of september. of the main work is important to having a complete facility operations have not been

materially affected current estimate remains at 621 and also confidence that the project should complete under the price. i like to say we are thrilled and you're blowing back to us. and [laughter] we will keep it for a little while. thank you remind. >> thank you all very much. i want to start off with the scores. since the meeting we had a couple of months ago in my office with mr. brady and mr. lundgren, there have been a number of improvements made and the complaints have dropped. i don't know any member some in the chambers and griping about how they've been restricted. the but that having been said, we made sure that we put language in the fiscal year 2010

appropriations bill to ensure that you are prohibited from a staging a security reasons. can you describe for us whether you are currently restricted in the the allosaurs and in what way and have been made it clear to your staff particularly that it is only the capitol police not the guidelines that are responsible for making sure that that follow security restrictions? >> i can safely say we're not mr. ting staff select doors. and we make it very clear to our guys in visitors and anyone who is hosting to the public that we're not restricting them. we do have our listening session so that we can give feedback. >> we have had them about every month or so since the spring time and take tauzin telephone calls from people and i think it greatly improves.

>> i have seen memos from u2 member offices on to our operations that are pretty directive and away you word of those miners don't appear to be recommended guidelines, they appear to be mandates and, for example, the current restriction mentors are two go in a clockwise motion around the capital but staff fled torras is not applicable to staff lead tours of they want to go counterclockwise diagonal or to one floor and on to another that's perfectly xm demo bashar memos. to be former directive and that is the feedback i'm getting from members of staff. and i have been told to turn around and go the other way so perhaps you could make your memos lust directive and a

little more specific as relates to and then with the old supreme court i know is open every day but not officially on staff fled to or but are you still mchugh sure that the staff to give tours understand that during the training they can bring their constituents and to the supreme court? >> they can take their tours annoy they want to go and the two chambers are places that people often go. they're usually someone there. the routings to there for the regular tours is something that we look at every day depending on the number of reservations we have because it is a general use building. >> in the chip training is a made clear that the staff on a staff fled to or they do have this flexibility to go where they want in the direction they

want? >> it should be the case and i will make sure it is the case going for the. >> that would be great. i did listen to describe some of the things you have been doing to improve staff led to worse. i want to move over to shuttle buses and then my time will expire we have received communications from the tour bus companies as well as from the guild of professional tour guides that are very concerned and about the difficulties that frail elderly visitors are having getting up the hill, the west front and i know we have a the six golf car shuttles that are available and i also know they can be made available in advance notice with it into a large group and all six can take 30 people at a time.

but 30 people at a time if you have 90 people who are waiting 20 or 30 minutes for you to the loop and come back to get them. so that is a concern. now one of the zero main things i want to ask you is hasn't been explored or make any sense to buy one of those mini buses at the kennedy center? we would not use it every day but we lose a for a large group and if we did bad is that something that could be screened in? representing a constituency in south florida that has a disproportionate number of frail elderly, that is a hill laffer and how the person or someone not particularly frail is a pretty good bit of exercise. for someone frail it is extremely difficult and i know

if you urged the two our companies to communicate with you in advance and i absolutely think they need to doave a big f seniors a good chunk of them are going to be frail and i just don't know that the shuttle, that those shuttles are an ongoing viable option so can you share both of your thoughts about that? >> well, on a minibus? i think we can, of course, looking to any scenario it would be a, of course, the privilege of the chief of police said that would be appropriate to. we have so far been able to accommodate people who are coming in on that and that when they give us enough notice an even when i don't have notice we can call from additional support so thus far we have been able to accommodate but i think it could be worth while to explore the idea of something else could be

used. >> i'm just a little concerned because the communication i have gone from the companies is that they are not fully -- there is not a regular and of communication with them about needing to know in advance and is in on the web site when you book a tort? >> is on our website. >> n/a commonplace. >> we can take a look at where it is. it is in a prominent place when i call is in the call center we do tell them we also a couple of cases the companies we work with quite a bit have had things in their newsletters so we made a pretty strong appeal when the guidance tour companies, we have had made an effort with them. however, we can make additional efforts. what we did do last year with some of the tour companies we haven't come in and walk to the whole process and that made them feel better. >> on a regular basis, but i

also think it is absolutely incumbent to the to organize here today and the bus companies might be here as well, it is a two-way street and is incumbent upon them to know the process and of the guidelines and they need to make sure that they let you know in advance and prepare your. we're never going to have a perfect system because dropping off for someone frail is going to be inconvenient and a little more difficult than the ideal situation and of the east. so my time is expired, thank you. >> again, let me just i go as far as also about the concerns for a senior groups and thank you for your paying attention to this issue because we are hearing things, the senior groups and certainly that is an obstacle to get up the hill and therefore try to find a way to

better facilitate this is shares in any way we know that that is what you want to do and we want to do and facilitate that so we thank you for paying attention to that encourage you to continue to do what you can to make sure that that message gets out. to the tour groups especially that cater to senior groups. one thing that i want to address to a mr. ayers is the issue about the sign-ins' at the cvc. , one of the concerns that after the cvc was opened was the lack of interior and exterior sign and. i just want to check with the saddest of the implementation of a sign it is and what day, what needs to be done to improve that and what feedback you are getting from other people that

work, that are in the cvc on a daily basis? >> we've certainly gone feedback that it's difficult to navigate, and difficult to find where you are and we've gotten that feedback from members, staff, our own and employees as well as the capitol police officers that staff on a daily basis. and we have implemented a temporary signage program and gone in and program numbers and you are here sons and directional signs for of the facility. as an interim measure until a permanent signs are fabricated and installed. we think that will be several months before they are actually installed so that is why we went ahead with a temporary measure on the inside. on the outside we are also looking at temporary signage as well and just last week i saw

the design and i would suspect within the next two to four weeks that next year signage will be in place to help people navigate around capitol square to get to the appropriate entrance of the building. >> they're a good a. concerning the utility costs for running cvc, are they running higher than expected, lower than was expected for the over all utility costs of running cvc? two have a status report on i? >> i can give you that record, but i would be happy to give you an update on the electrical steam and chilled water and domestic water. >> that is all i have, madam chair. >> thank you for the work you

are doing. [inaudible] >> we do believe it is important that we put in a system that enables police officers to do police and security work forces binding on a continual basis and we have heard that loud and clear from the officers that work outside the capitol building and we are working to address that with new exterior signage. >> thank-you.

>> i was going to complement to on continuing to be a trendsetter, your foot or in some of the finest i've seen. [laughter] >> ally to blend into the background at. >> i always call those nuys picks para [laughter] i want to echo the signage and that is not just the visitors. we had to republican conference's in a room over there and we are wandering around for a long time. and we couldn't figure out where we're going so anything you can do. [laughter] anything you can do to help the visitors but the of it to find their way is really appreciated. and i was sort of a marveling at the frail people who apparently lived in florida and alabama and one place you don't to be in ohio is when a group of food. ladies get up in a bus boy into a casino. and come charging through.

[laughter] i guess we are hardier stock up in my state. [laughter] i do want to ask about a combination -- coordination, but i have one and i think it illustrates the coordination between the forces chief and art covetous today is a big day and there were two lines apparently to get into the tunnel, one for the taurus and one for the artists and our families. our specific case we apparently broken arrow and we had artists and family and a couple people that want to see the capital. asked the red coats which line to get in and they said it does not matter, either one. i thought that was a good answer but when i got up to security the security at the time said it you can't and his family to go down look at the picture and the but the other people had to let

go back into another line. that is ok but because of the length of the line was a half-hour to leave that too have an hour here and there, we cheated and took it artist and the family into the capital in a way and nobody caught us, but it raises some concerns just in terms of it can you just discussed with the subcommittee how you are talking to each other to make sure that the right to answers the same as the checkpoint? >> i can say that i don't know the total number, but ms. morse gave it to me the other day in the cvc, there had been some 800 types of events that had taken place related to the cvc and she had conveyed that to our division that handles the cvc and ever handled very well so the communication between her office in the division office i think is very well.

instances like fats poor communication but certainly they can pry are to rise or facilitate and a special needs of the members related two any special events and at the same time still expeditiously move people into the cvc from the main entrance to the cannon tunnel so we will improve upon that and that communication and especially since the cannon tunnel is held by our house division and the capital divisions primarily responsible for the cvc and will improve upon and that communication with this house but we do work very well together in that respect. >> we do our very well -- we have a weekly partners' meeting with everyone who has anything to do with the cvc down to the attending physician's office and it is a great debriefing our

where everything can be sent it and we worked in the issues and, of course, every time something new happens and we debrief on mass of that communication i think has led to a lot to what often is a very smooth operation and when there are hiccups we acknowledge them and don't brush them under the table and go right after them. >> thank you remind to and i want to commend all of you because my nose indicate that the average wait time is down from two to four hours to six minutes which is really outstanding with all of the demands of security and people you have to see. the only thing i have left as i have been racking my brains to determine whether i am counterclockwise, i can't figure it out. [laughter] thank you very much. >> mr. honda. >> let me add my thanks to mr. brody. i knew that name was familiar and it was a song. do you remember that?

i got a gal named roni? [laughter] that shows you how old i am i guess. and to our staff also thank you very much. it just happens to do with winds also. when i entered the capital visitor center sometimes it is a very hot in human and i am anticipating the cold winters. how are we going to be shorn in that line so that we can make sure that if it is a long line that the seniors and the older folks, a those who need to be sheltered from the human and an cold as quickly as possible. and the lines are and i know you had some fans out there that

health but doesn't reach a window sometimes and i am not sure how long the wait time is, but it seems to me that there might be other mechanisms with those spray hoses and reducing temperature, but a lot of folks are older and standing around really saps the strength. i am getting to that age. [laughter] i would like to know of there are any thoughts been put into that in terms of entering the building. >> i will begin by answering that. one thing that i do is i go toward the lines on occasion. i go over to this cvc and i have spent several weeks over there and actually helping screening out it is done, going outside. what i have noticed and it is in

a policy or procedure of that sorry to this sort of human nature, especially with our officers you know that this sense of things are occurring and we were close late with a visitor services to stand out there with us. frankly any time we see any one who need special care or can't stand or sit to we simply expedite them into the facility. we hope and explained to everybody who is still weighing. this is something good for people and this is what we are going to do and i haven't seen a problem with. as far as anything that we can do with regard to making the environment in that area, better when it is hot or cold. we could certainly get together

and look at that whether it be plans or heaters or messed or water or whenever. our officers no that when there are people in need and that things aren't working out very well for them, and the environment that they're standing they expedite into the building. >> two follow-up on what latifah saying, the visitors assistance are out there and what we have done is we have put more people out there at the lines that can identify and help to identify someone who is in need. we have umbrellas that we are now allowing us to run just means not only with a brain where the key to, i don't like the heat at this point in my time, so we're tries to accommodate and learn from our colleagues what they are doing with the crowns the they have in the environment they have and then take those best practices,

run them to our partners and see what would make sense so as to approach this next year we have better solutions. >> i know that when 9/11 for stabenow may close our airports and then along lines are to come up, they contracted with disneyland, how to configure lines and control lines and bringing people through expeditiously. but it seems to me that there would be issues of having busloads who is going to be there, that could be accommodated but those just arrived through to boris. it seems to me that there should be some sort of a protocol than just leaving it up to individual

officers to check the lines and see if something is going on in the dish to be a matter, of course, to help people get through. i think that would go a long way in terms of their affection for what has happened all there are visiting at the center. if they could pay a little more attention to that and see what we can do i think our goal is to be the nordstrom's of the world so be centered around our clients. >> we can certainly come up with a protocol to address that needed. >> personally i thank you ought to be congratulated, we have come a long way since we started with this issue. there are always things to work and this is what we're doing now but i have two issues i want to raise but following up on my question when people come here

sometimes they come from transitions and they are in long lines so we have bad facilities that they can use right away? something to consider when they will be in line coming from a train station. i don't know how we deal with it and consider but it is an issue i thought of so i will get all of that and think of that issue. >> i think that song was in the 1930's so that shows a range. [laughter] the two issues i like to talk about is one i think has to be dallas. i am telling you experiences and feedback from me and some of the feedback are people that have come to the visitor center. i have a sister who has two children, 10 and seven and a chief of staff who has tenyo plans and both had not a very good and spears with to organize. i am going to try to address the

issue of to our guys because we spend all this money and want to make this extremely positive experience for families all over the country. people from other countries whenever and we can do all the things we talk about but if we don't have a positive tour guide situation and can make it not very positive and this is what my suggestion is. on osher with a hiring standards are, i am not sure what the training is and it has to really -- i thank you need management to look at the training to see where we are but i have an idea because i have had two complaints now and to people that i'm rather close to about how the guys are condescending especially to young children and a lot of people ask questions and i don't know if we're giving our guys the time to run them through or whatever is and then my sister had to go to the white house and had a totally different experience.