fail thing, and let's decide if you're that big, let's stop this concentration. the president also has indicated that we ought to have financial institutions that are not trading in derivatives on their own proprietary accounts. i wrote a piece in 1994, 15 years ago that was the cover story for "washington monthly magazine." the piece that i wrote was "very risky business." and that was 15 years ago. i believe there was $15 million of negotiable value of derivatives. i said what's happening in this country is outrageous. we have taxpayer insured bankers institutions trading on derivatives. putting taxpayers' money at risk. it is flatout gambling. they may as well have a craps

table or keno table in their lobby. 15 years ago i wrote that article. and the fact is we've gone through this unbelievable collapse of the economy, $15 trillion of wealth lost to the american people and we still have these institutions trading on proprietary accounts and the president says it ought to stop. the are president also says we ought to separate, as paul volcker suggests, the fdic insured banking institutions from the investment banks over here. they were put back together. i stood on the floor of this senate 10 years ago, five, sis, eight times and gave long speeches predicting that if you do this, if you fuse together commercial banks and investment banks, you're headed for trouble. i said on this floor within a decade i think you're going to see massive taxpayer bailouts and people have asked me, how did you find the crystal ball.

i just guessed. but i worried. you put this together this is a bargain for trouble. this is asking for trouble. 10 years later we've seen this unbelievable collapse. the president is saying, and he's right, and it takes courage for him to say it, let's decide to separate investment banking from commercial banking. paul volcker has talked a lot about that. and he's right about it. and so i know what is happening -- i saw in "congress daily p.m.," a furious lobbying effort among large banks was set off by president obama's announcement he'll push a rule pushing them to choose between being a commercial institution or investment bank and focus on trading for its own profits primarily. the president dubbed the volcker plan. a little bit with paul volcker in my -- i met with paul volcker in my office recently and talked to him some length about this. paul volcker is dead right and so is the president. this is going to provoke an

unbelievable battle here. i understand that. there's a lot at stake. the big interest, they want to keep doing what they're doing and the big investment banks at the moment, you take a look at their balance sheet, they're not by and large loaning money to the interest in this country that desperately need. it they are trading on proprietary accounts and making a lot of money trading. the fact is they're still too big to fail and are, that is called no fault capitalism. it our risk, not theirs. none of them would be around if the federal government had not stepped in to provide a safety net. they're telling us that, well, these changes that the president and other suggest, they are radical changes. no, they're not. they're changes that go back to future in many ways. they're changes that go back to a period of, 1999, before a piece of legislation called -- a piece of legislation that was passed by the congress to -- to decide let's put together these big holding companies and put

everything into one, one-stop financial shopping, they said. compete with the europeans. we'll put your fire walls, turned out they were made of tissue paper and the whole thing collapsed. i just say that i think that the president made the right call. it's gutscy. it's going to provoke a big fight around here. but it's not a secret given my history and what i have said in opposing the kinds of things that were done 10 years ago that set us up for this fall. it's not surprising that i fully intend to support the president eaf for the. i think it is -- effort. i think it is critically important to get our financial system reformed and done right. it is important to do one other thing and this is to have regulators that don't brag about being willfully blind. we had folks for much of the last decade who said we decided to take this important government job and we're proud to say that we're pro-business, what's that mean? we're proud to say we're at the s.e.c., we're at this agency or

that agency and you do whatever you want. we won't look. we won't watch. some of them were so incompetent that even when whistleblowers came and said that bernie madoff is running a ponzi scheme, even when someone told them what was going on they didn't have the guts or time or intelligence to investigate it. but being willfully blind ought not to be something to boast about anymore. going forward we want effective regulation. regulation is not a four-letter word. the lack of regulation caused this crash in many ways and cost $15 trillion to the american family. i'm not suggesting overregulation. i am saying when you have certain areas that are regulatory in this government to make sure the free market system works, and works well, and that when people commit fouls in the free market system in this area of competition there's somebody there with a whistle in a striped shirt to blow the whistle and say that's a foul. if you don't have that, the system doesn't work. the system gets completely haywired and that's what happened in the next decade.

that's not a technical term, that haywire issue. we have the opportunity to get this right now. i say to the president, good for you. this proposal is the right proposal. let's see in the weeks ahead and months ahead, who's side are you on? i say to those in public service in these issues, who's side are you on? are you on the side of the big investment bankers that help steer us into the ditch? that involved substantial wagering and gambling here and we pick up the tab because it is no fault capitalism on no fail issues or are you going to stand up for the american people and decide to put this back in the right way. i hope we will have the support to follow the president's lead on this issue. i understand the need for a financial system that works. i admire bankers who do banking the old fashioned way, take deposits and makes loan and look in somebody's eye to say, you

want a loan, what's it for? let me evaluate that. can you repay this loan? that's underwriting. the current occupant of the chair i know ran a bank and understands. you need investment banks. i know one of my colleagues once said investment banking is to productive enterprise like mud wrestling is to the performing arts. that was tongue in cheek. we need investment banks to take the riskier investments out there. our investment banking system went completely off the bank. we need good commercial banks that need capitalized, good investment banks, we need to get it right. i don't mean to denigrate all finance. because finance is very important in this system to help this free enterprise system work, to help people who want to start businesses an hire people, that's very important for our country. so we'll have that debate in a longer fashion in the weeks and make a point of order that a quorum is not present. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call: mr. dorgan: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. dorgan: mr. president, i ask consent that the quorum call be waived. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. dorgan: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. so ordered. mr. dorgan: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration of s.j. res. 25 andhe s its

immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s.j. res. 25, joint resolution granting the consent and approval of congress to amendments made by the state of maryland, the commonwealth of virginia and the district of columbia to the washington metropolitan area transit regulation compact.e priding oft objection, so ordered, the committee is discharged. the senate will proceed to the measure. according doing mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the joint resolution be read a third time and passed. the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table with no intervening action or debate. and that any statements related to the measure be placed in the record at the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. dorgan: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate now proceed to the consideration of s. res. 391, which was submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 391, recognizing the 25th

anniversary of the enactment of the victims of crime actorth. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the matter. mr. dorgan: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. dorgan: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. res. 392 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 392, expressing the sense of the senate on the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the january 12, 2010, earthquake in haiti. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the report. mr. dorgan: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table with no intervening action or debate. and that any statements related to the resolution be placed in the record at the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered.

mr. dorgan: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. dorgan: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it adjourn until friday, january 22 at 9:30 a.m. that following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed ex piered, the time for the two leaders be reserved until later in the day, and that the senate resume consideration of h.j. res. 45rbgs the debt limit. -- h.j. res. 45, the debt limit. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. dorgan: for the information of senators, there will be no roll call votes during friday's session of the session. if there's no further business to come before the senate, i now ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate will stand adjourned until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.

>> next, an update on the earthquake relief efforts in haiti with the head of the u.s. southern command, general doug fraser. topics include efforts to manage the flow of aircraft into haiti's capital city port-au-prince. general fraser speaks with reporters for about half an hour.

>> good morning general phaser. how do you you hear me? >> loudoun clear, thanks. >> if you are ready we will get started. it morning everyone. joining us again today, although today the as satellite rather than here in person as general fraser the commander of u.s. southern command. he is going to provide an update on haiti relief operations. general-- your opening statement. >> thank you very much. good morning. as you know our efforts from the d.o.t. continue in support of usaid efforts on the part of the united states government to support aid efforts for the victims of the earthquake in haiti. based on that earthquake roughly 3 million people are estimated to be impacted, so what i would

like to do this morning is give you a bigger picture if you will of the overall u.s. military efforts that are being taken to aid those victims. first, if we look at the airport because that is the place that we first focus their attention, while we were moving the the capability. the airport now supports roughly 120 to 140 flights a day, hand it has received over 840 flights during that time that it has been opened. because of this size and the magnitude of the assistance required, we have a waiting list of over 1400 flights waiting to t