somehow essential to the economic health of this country? the economic health of this country was better, much, much better prior to the enactment of those changes. i didn't vote for those changes. i stood on the floor and fought like the delve ill against them. eight -- delve against them. 8 of us voted on the financial modern services act. eight voted no. the fact is that it set this country up for an unbelievable fall. so now here we are, the question is: what next? where do we go from here? i understand that in this country it is reasonable for every interest group to organize to support their vested interest. i understand that completely. but i also understand that there is a higher purpose and a much larger issue near the american people and for our future. what kind of future do we want? what kinds of activities -- what kinds of things can we do to put our country back on track?

to restart the economic engine? to put people back on payrolls once again? you know, there's nothing that we can do in this chamber that's much more important, as far as i'm concerned, than finding a way to create jobs to put people back to work. there is no social program that is as important as a good job that pays well and allows people to take care of their families. that's just a fact. we've seen in this country how you expand the middle class, with jobs. good jobs that pay well. i'm going speak later in this next couple of months again about the issue of trade. i've written a book about that subject. but i'm going to speak at greater length about it because in the middle of an economic downturn, we're talking about jobs. if we're hemorrhaging jobs outside of our job -- outside our country and we have people trying to find a way to get back to work, that doesn't work to me. that's trying to fill a bathtub if you've got the drain open.

what i wanted to talk about this morning is to say, it's not a coincidence that we ended up with this intersection in deep financial trouble trying to find a way to see can we -- can we rebuild the economy to start putting people back to work again? it's not a surprise that we've wound up here. anybody who watched what happened with the creation of bubbles and the unbelievable specks that was going -- speculation that was gong and the creation of exotic financial instruments and no regulation at all and people in regulatory authority who covered their eyes and the head of the fed who actually was a cheerleader for awful it. who said we don't need to regulate hedge funds or derivatives, i oppose all of that. is it a surprise that this thing collapsed? it's not to me. the question is: how do we set it right? this president, i don't agree with him on anything. this president inherited the biggest economic wreck since the

great depression. if he had gone to sleep from january when he was inaugurated until today, there was going to be adds 1-dz .3 trillion - .3 trillion -- $1.3 trillion budget deficit had he done nothing. that's what he walked into the white house and assumed. and it's not just -- it's not just this financial situation. this is most of it. but we went to war and decided not pay for a penny of it. going to send young men and women to fight an die and risk their -- and die and risk their lives day after day after day in iraq and afganistan an elsewhere? -- and elsewhere? and we decided we weren't going to pay for 1 penny of it -- one penny of it. we in the senate, some of us, decided to pay for. so its cost we're going to risk the lives of some kids and we're not going pay for it? we went eight years and didn't pay for a penny. every bit went to debt. when we said, let's pay for it, the president said, if you do. if you pass that bill, i'm going

to veto it. that's another part of this. look. this country knows better. the american people know better. that's not a policy that works. i talked yesterday about the chairman of the federal reserve board, mr. president bernanke. and i -- i did not speak ill of him. i mean, despite the fact that i think he has some ownership of these issues as well. he was there. part of the economic team and part of the federal reserve board as well. i indicated yesterday, i just want to make the point that his nomination is coming up and i indicated that i was not going to vote in favor of the nomination. and i said because when he decided to open the lending window at the federal reserve board for the first time in the history of our country to investment banks, i didn't criticize him for it. i wasn't sure whether it was necessary. but i didn't criticize. we were in the middle of a very

difficult time. but when he decided to do that, he put the american taxpayers' funds at risk. we waited and i and a group of eight other senators wrote him a letter in -- about six months ago and said, all right, now we want to understand who came to that window and how much money did they get and what were the terms? who did you give the money to? who's got our money and he wrote back us to and said, i don't intend to tell you that. i don't intend to tell the congress or the american people. despite the fact that he said that transparency is a big issue for him. well, apparently not on this issue. and i don't think the united states congress should proceed with his nomination. -- nomination until he tells us what was the consequence of opening the discount window -- excuse me -- the loan window at the federal reserve board to investment banks for the first time in history. mr. president, i know that i see my colleague from kansas is here. and would like to speak perhaps. this is a long and tortured

discussion about this country, its finances an its future -- and its future. there is plenty of criticism to go around. i've had kind of a belly full standing here in the senate and hearing about president obama and socialism and -- and that sort of thing. i mean the fact is, as i said, he inherited the biggest mess since the great depression. had he done nothing, the budget deficit was going to b be $1.3 trillion this year. now, he's trying to do some things that will set this country back on track. we've gone through almost a lost decade here in terms of smart, effective, good public policies that invest in this country's future. set us back a lot. what we need to do now, it seems to me, is to try to see if we can't find a way that what both political parties offer to this country that can be brought

together to link arms and lift this country up. we see every day, almost every single day people sawing away and rachting away -- ratcheting away about what is wrong with the country. i can spend a lot of time with what's wrong with america. but there -- it deserves the best of what both political parties ought to offer america rather than the worst of each. and i hope in the next six or eight month that's we can find ways to ask people of both political parties to decide the -- to decide to stand up for tough things, things that will require some courage, that will restart this economic engine, put america back on track and try to make certain what has happened to us in the last couple of years will never happen again. most importantly we need to give people an understanding things can be better than in the past. it is -- confidence is everything. if people are confident about

the future, they do the things that manifest that confidence, that expand this country's economy. that's just a fact. and if they're not confident about future, they do things that contract the economy. they defer an delay things that they would do that would otherwise expand the economy. we have an enormous responsibility, in my judgment. i hope in the near future we can find a which to create jobs initiatives here, put people back to work more quickly. but there's just a lot of issues that confront us. i wanted today especially to talk about the two things the president mentioned yesterday. both of which are so right and so important. both of which this town will organize to oppose. but asking or deciding or telling fdic insured banks that you cannot any longer be investing and trading risky instruments on your own proprietary accounts and putting the american people at risk, you can't do that anymore. that's not radical. that's right and it's long

overdue. i wrote the first article about that 15 years ago for washington's monthly magazine. the issue of too big to fail. if anybody in this chamber wund fers we ought to do something about too big to fail, go to any cafe in this country and ask folks if they think this capitalistic system works well when you say to almost everybody else, you risk your savings to start a business, if you don't make it, tough luck, you're on your own. with by the way, we have big financial interests that make the biggest profits and we decided they can't fail. we have a special class for them. we'll open loan windows at the fed. we'll provide $11 trillion lent, spent or made available to them if they need it. we'll do anything to prevent this from failing because they're too big to fail. that's no-fault capitalism. that's not what i believe to be the american way and that's something this president wants to change and it's something that i support very strongly. mr. president, i yield the

floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas is recognized. mr. brownback: thank you very much. i thank my colleague from north dakota n. dakota. i'll miss his voice. he and i are leaving this body at the end of this year. i enjoyed working with him and on many different issues of concern to this country. he has a strong voice and did an excellent job of representing his constituency and his point of view. i'll miss serving with him. mr. president, right now that the very minute hundreds of thousands of people are amassing in this town for the 37th annual right to life march. it will be a crowd where 80% is under the age of 25. it's a young movement. it is a movement that believes that human dignity and life begins at conception and goes to natural death. they're energized and motivated and here. they plan to speak for the

voiceless. to stand for a cause that they believe in. that they believe in is right and i believe that they are right and i believe they are wing this cause. 1973, the supreme court banned most impediments to having an abortion in the united states and since that tragic decision many experts estimate that between 40 million and 50 million -- 40 million to 50 million abortions have happened in the united states. it's a number that plagues our government and defies our constitution. this tragedy is why we continue to call for the end of abortion in the united states. but today in memory of the 37th anniversary of roe v. wade i want to talk about how the pro life movement can be credit card with changing the attitude of abortion in america. the president's campaign theme was on change. it is relevant to the pro-life movement which has changed millions of hearts and minds by challenging the central tenants

of the roe decision that said that state laws can no longer cover the issue of abortion and federalizing the issue has been the centerpiece issue saying that this should be decided at state level and these pr protess are here en masse to call for the supreme court to overturn roe v. wade. it has been an threat kal to human dignity. there will be young people at the march that will learn this they lost siblings because of abortion. they will never know a younger brother or older sister and profoundly saddened. there will be women at the march for life who have had abortions an regret making that decision. they're still grieving for their lost children and they will say that which is politically incorrect, abortion hurts women. a number of women who have joined this silent no more campaign represents a fundamental change in attitudes regarding the controversy of the issue of abortion.

and i hope congress will listen to those who mourn and advocate for their government to do something to right this wrong. if they do listen, they will notice that the country is changing in several significant ways. the pro-life movement has transcended beyond my generation and to a new movement that is young, passionate, energetic, creative, resilient. president obama said during his campaign last year a new generation inspires an old generation, and that is how change happens in america. it doesn't just happen in elections an campaigns. we know that young people everywhere are imaging something different than what is. and i believe that this younger generation is inspiring an older generation. today there will be hundreds of thousands of americans, many of them young people who believe in defending innocent human life who will march across the national mall today for a real change. we found out earlier this week

with the upset victory by scott brown in massachusetts, one of the bluest of blue states, that politicians have to respect the voters and issues they care about. the mean rl dismayed that our government's radical approach to promoting abortion. the american people don't want government-run health care that includes abortion mandates and federal subsidies for abortion. they don't want foreign aid going to -- abroad to promote abortion, they don't want to relax commonsense regulations proven to reduce the incident of abortion much even on those pro-choice, the mantra and here for some period of time is to have abortion safe, legal, and rare. these that i listed are policies that would expand abortion. the last time the federal government paid for elective abortions, we paid for nearly 300,000 a year. a shocking number. certainly not a rare rarity to happen. people are realizing that abortion had promised liberty

but instead has brought death. doubters have turned into believers an people are waking up to the reality and truth about abortion. our movement is changing hearts and minds. now what is true that the pro-life movement saw many setbacks this past year, we also have much to be thankful and hopeful for in the future. a gallup poll for the first time since gallup asked this question in 1995, showed our country to be a pro-life majority country. this year 51% of americans called themselves pro-life on the issue of abortion an 42% pro-choice. in in 1995, 56% of americans called themselves pro-choice and in 2008, that number was 50%. i see our movement changing, striving to continue getting a little better each day. the movement continues to value people over ideology and political parties. pro-lifers have found a here proceed and strong ally in

democrat congressman bart stupak this year for taking the tough stance in defense of life in health care reform debate. it was a blow to the abortion advocates when democrat congressman stupak led the charge and continues to lead the charge in that fight. pro-life movement is changing because it has rallied new leaders from both major political parties which is something for which we should be very grateful. another way our movement is changing is through new outreach tools. pro-lifers are sharing the truth about abortion with friends on facewoulbook, twitter, youtube d iphone. a change in technologies. young people are utilizing these new media tools to uncover and expose an abortion industry. i'm excited about this because i know the pro-life movement's focus and energy has never been so devoted or determined. the movement's message is more expansive. we've changed and attracted a majority of the country to our cause with compassion for all

human life. being pro-life and whole life. our movement has become more consistent and attractive because the pro-life movement speaks to the respect for human life in all places and in all stages. for those who are in the womb, for those who are in prison. for those who are in africa, for those who are in poverty or plenty. for those who experienced natural disasters, such as the recent earthquake in haiti. the pro-life movement has been successful because it has changed people's views on the issue. we're now seeing more and more studies coming out about the impact on people who have had abortions. even the evidence has been changing on, we now know that 80% to 0% of people diagnosis -- 90% of people diagnosed with genetic defects like down's syndrome are aborted. we're getting that evidence in. we also have evidence now that shows children in the womb feel pain when they are aborted. new science, ultrasound equipment and other advances in technology are giving newfound hope in spreading the truth

about abortion. ultimately, the cause for human dignity cannot be silenced and will not stay still. human liberty and freedom will prevail and i hope that this year's march for life will again inspire a country that longs for change and that many hope will imraif, fully -- embrace, fully embrace a culture of life. mr. president, i yield the floor and i'd note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

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mr. leahy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont is recognized. mr. leahy: i ask the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: with unanimous consent. mr. leahy: mr. president, we have all watched the widespread devastation and loss of life in haiti caused by last week's earthquake. it's a tragedy on a scale that words can't adequately describe. i've talked with a number of the people who have been down there. i've talked to people after they have come back. i've talked to people while they are there. and no matter how horrific the signs are that we have seen, it's even worse. the hemisphere's poorest country. history repeated calamities. some, of course, caused by natural disasters, but some by past corrupted abusive governments. it now faces an humanitarian emergency but also reconstruction needs of daunting

proportions. three million people affected. hundreds of thousands left homeless. an estimated 100,000, perhaps twice that many lives lost. countless children. damaged, injured, orphaned. the haitian government which already has limited capacity has been severely damaged. the u.n. mission -- in haiti, the u.n. which is doing such heroic work down there, suffered catastrophic losses, losses of life, losses of physical plant. americans and people around the world have reacted with compassion, generosity, and a massive relief operation is under way. we have seen search and rescue teams from the u.s. and other countries continue to pull survivors from the rubble more than a week after the building's collapse. the u.s. coast guard, the u.s.

agency for international development, the departments of state and defense and many other federal agencies have personnel on the ground, and our military sends ships and planes and troops. we have responded as america does. we are, after all, the wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth, and it's not just a humanitarian, it is a moral issue. morality requires us to help those, especially neighbors, so severely damaged. i have visited haiti, and i am the chairman of the foreign operations subcommittee and each year i have worked to increase u.s. assistance for haiti, and i can tell you, mr. president, this earthquake could not have come at a worse time. there is hope that haiti, after recovering from three severe hurricanes in 2008 that left

much of the country's infrastructure damaged or destroyed, was poised to finally make some real strides toward political stability and economic development. all of us who cared for haiti, who worked on haiti issues thought finally things are turning around. last tuesday in a few terrifying minutes, that hope was buried in rubble. the immediate focus, of course, is saving lives. helping those people who have no place to live and no way to support themselves. i do want to thank and i do want to note the thanks that should be due to the many humanitarian relief organizations, as well as to the united nations and o.a.s., pan american health organization, the international committee of the red cross, other international organizations, countries that have come here to help from around the world.

they have mobilized quickly. we have seen their doctors and their nurses and other relief personnel workday and night since shortly after the earthquake hit. they are doing an outstanding job under the worst possible conditions. and i want to express my condolences to the haitian people, my admiration for them. they have shown remarkable fortitude and patience in the wake of this catastrophe. and even in the midst of so much misery, there are already glimpses of a recovery. and to the families of others who have died or suffered severe, lasting injuries, the american citizens who were in haiti, several of whom were vermonters who had relatives -- or who had relatives in vermont. they lost their lives when the buildings complapsed, all our hearts go out to them. how much we wish we could turn

the clock back and bring them home. now, i know that a great deal is being done to alleviate the suffering, but i think that there are important lessons from this experience that will enable us to respond more quickly and more effectively when the next disaster strikes, and we would be pollyannish to think the next disaster won't strike. more than a week after the earthquake, many people left homeless have yet to receive food and water and they have no shelter. the signal america caribbean region is among the most disaster prone in the world due to the many advocacy and earthquake fault lines and tropical storms. there are things -- and we'll learn from this. there are things we can do to be better-prepared, to deliver aid more efficiently next time, and this is not to detract from the heroic efforts of those not only

from the united states, from nongovernment organizations, and from other countries who have worked against almost insurmountable odds to deliver the aid they already have. all of us are concerned that some humanitarian organizations have been unable to obtain access to the port-au-prince airport for several days. many tons of relief supplies have been flown to the dominican republic and trucked by land to port-au-prince. how expensive and time-consuming. it is needed now. i am aware that the port-au-prince airport can accommodate only a limited number of flights per day. it is my understanding that number now exceeds 120. i've asked our u.s. military to take immediate steps to ensure that these organizations have immediate access for their relief flights.

again, i don't say this to detract from what they've done. they worked against horrible odds. if you are a child, dehydrated and dying and food and water is only a few miles away, and you are a parent of that child, you want that there then. fortunately, we have had, our u.s. government, the military, the u.n., and others have had to basically had to organize their own government, their own methods of getting through. and, mr. president, behind all that, though, has been the outpouring of generosity of americans of all ages to the people of haiti. it's been extraordinary. millions of dollars have been donated. there have been far more offers to volunteer than the relief organizations can accommodate. i am very proud of the many vermonters, from nurses to

elementary school students to help haiti. haiti has suffered a devastating blow. our ties to haiti and the haitian people are stronger than ever. we will not only help the haitian people through this crisis, we will work with them to transfork this distance fer into -- to transform this disaster into an opportunity than it was before. we'll lookality the next budget request for leat and ask, chow we make it better? how can we make them better-prepared if the disaster strikes again? how can we help people who really want and deserve a better life? that is a sense of morality. that is not geopolitics. that's showing a sense of morality. and it's people in this country that think that's what we should

do. i yield the floor and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. a senator: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to lift the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: mr. president, i rise today to talk about the challenge of putting our economy back on track and the type of leadership we need to take us forward. mr. merkley: much of this last year, we have been absorbed in addressing the challenge of

major financial institutions failing and the importance of preventing them from failing in order to not have the second great depression. so that has put a lot of attention on wall street. but to go forward as a nation, we need to turn our attention to main street. we need to rebuild the financial foundations for our families. and that is why i'm rising today to oppose the nomination of chair bernanke for a second term as chair of the federal reserve. so i want to take a moment to explain why his nomination was in the banking committee i voted against that nomination. and i voted against the nomination because i believe

that chair bernanke is not the right person to take us forward. now, i will acknowledge he has been quite handy with the fire hose. that is, he's been quite handy in addressing and putting out the fire that has afflicted our economy over this last year. we are not in a great depression but we are in a severe recessi recession. but do you hand the job of rebuilding a house that's been burnt down by a fire to the person who helped set the fire to begin with? and ben bernanke help set the fire. ben bernanke was on the board of governors of the fed from 2002-2005. he was chair of the council of economic advisors from 2005-2006, and he was chairman

of the fed from 2006 until now. he has been at the table of economic policy making in this country for eight years when mistake after mistake after mistake has been made. that is how the house was set on fire, and now that it's built to the ground, we don't need a fireman to rebuild the house, we need a carpenter. we need somebody who understands that short-term wealth on wall street is not the goal of our national economic policy. the goal of our policy is to build the financial foundations for our family, the success of our families. let me just mention some of the things that happened while ben bernanke was sitting at the table making economic policy. first, there was an enormous explosion in derivatives. now, derivatives is a term that

is hard to get your hands around, but let me translate it. it is essentially bets on the future aspects of the economy, bets on future interest rates, bets on future bond prices, bets on future stock prices. now, you can place bets on things you own yourself and that's akin to an insurance policy, but you can also just place bets that are not on assets that you own and then it's just pure speculation. those derivative contracts, those contracts that were essentially speculation on the future created a web of risk, tying one financial institution to the next financial institution, setting them up like dominoes so that if one failed, they endangered the next failing. and while this derivatives market exploded and there wasn't a clearinghouse and there wasn't an exchange, we heard nothing

from ben bernanke about the need to address that risk. and then there's the question of leverage. the securities and exchange commission lifted the leverage requirements on the five largest investment banks and they proceeded to invest with 30-1 leverage ratios. now, if you have a dollar and with that dollar you can borrow $30 and invest those $30, when things go up in value, you're going to make enormous money, enormous profit. but just as assuredly, when they go down in value, you're going to lose your money instantly, very, very quickly. and so we don't know just when the markets will go up and the markets will go down, but what we do know is that they will go up and down over time. and you need to have a system that isn't designed just to reap great benefits on the way up and

blow up on the way down. but we heard nothing from ben bernanke about this risk. and it's during this period that proprietary trading increased dramatically. what is proprietary trading? we think of our banks as organizations that take in deposits and they make loans, but they also can trade on their own account and they can borrow money to trade on their own account. you can think of them as day traders in the financial world, only at levels of extreme size, very large size. and the risks that are taken in proprietary trading can produce tremendous profits. and when the markets go down, when the bets go bad, enormous losses. and, again, we did not hear from ben bernanke about the risk that proprietary trading was placing on our depository lending,

banking institutions. and let's address consumer protection. now, the fed has the mission of consumer protection, but under mr. bernanke's leadership, the responsibility for monetary policy was in the penthouse, safety and sound house were on the -- soundness were on the upper floors and consumer protection was put deep in the basement, never to be heard from again. well, why was this so important to our financial system? certain practices grew that completely imperiled our financial system based on consumer protection issues, and specifically one of those was prepayment penalties in the humble mortgage and the other was steering payments. now, let me explain those a little bit. a steering payment is a payment

that a group that is lending the funds makes to a broker to reward them for steering a client into a very expensive loan. so now you know as an american family buying a home, you've just come from your real estate broker and your real estate broker follows very strict code of conduct, makes sure that everything is absolutely disclosed in a straightforward manner, makes sure that you understand whether they're representing the seller, the buyer or both of you, and you go from that to your broker and you see you're paying your broker and you think that that broker is going to do the best by you. and, indeed, your broker might say to you, home owning has become very complicated and i will serve as your financial advisor so i will make sure you get the best loan. but what you don't know is that that broker is taking a huge fee, a huge steering payment, if you will, to convince you to put

your name on a loan that is not in your best interest, a threen has an exploding interest rate -- a loan that has an exploding interest rate, a loan that has a triple option, that will go from a low payment to a high payment, and a threen has a prepayment penalty that keeps you flocked that loan and unable -- locked in that loan and unable to refinance without several pounds of flesh. well, those practices were very valuable to the lender. that's why they paid these payments to the broker, because they could then sell that loan to wall street and say, look how valuable this loan s. the interest rate is going -- this loan is. the interest rate is going to go way up and the homeowner can't get out of the loan. that's a really valuable asset. and wall street took those subprime loans and they proceeded to turn them into securities and they started to sell them to financial institutions throughout the world. so the failure to protect the homeowner from these abusive practices led to systemic risk, not just here in america but throughout financial institutions throughout this

world. that responsibility for consumer protection was the federal reserve's responsibility. well, i want to note several things. the first is that i have found in dealing with chair bernanke that he has been very forthcoming in conversations, he's been very professional, he's been very knowledgeable, he's been very likable. so nothing i'm saying right now is based on any sort of personal feelings. i want stead, it' -- instead, it's about this: how do we put this economy on track for our families, for the financial future of our families? and i've got to say, our families have suffered enormously as our national economic house has burned down. they have lost jobs. they have lost their savings. they have often lost their health care that went with their jobs. they've often lost their retirement accounts because the

value plunged of the assets they had in that retirement account. folks who had planned that they were going to have some golden years now are thinking they might have to keep working as long as they are able. families have lost a great deal. families are stressed about the future. so these economic mistakes had a huge consequence. we need to have a chair of the federal reserve that will lean into the wind, that is, when something is unpopular but important to address a systemic risk, is willing to say to powerful economic entities, this practice is not acceptable, the lack of reserves is not acceptable, prepayment penalties and steering payments in mortgage are not acceptable, undisclosed derivatives that tie financial institutions together in a web of risk is not

acceptable. proprietary trading that can make huge profits for a depository lending institution in one quarter but bring down that same institution the next must be regulated. we must have a chairman of the federal reserve who will lean into the wind and say, these things are important, these lane markers important, these traffic signals are important. we can think of it akin to a traffic system. you don't want a stop sign on every corner. you don't want paralyzed traffic from overregulation, but you also don't want to strip away the traffic signals, strip away the lane markers and have the sort of chaos that results in all kinds of traffic accidents and wreckage. and yet that's what happened in our financial system over the eight years that ben bernanke was at the table of economic policy making. you may think that maybe i'm

overstating the mits stakes that were made and i would encourage anyone to look up "the washington post" article written on december 21, 2009, a month and a half ago. this article is an extensive review of decisions the fed made and their impact in the system, and i thought i'd just give you a sampling of just this one article of things that you might find interesting and important in this conversation about the leadership, economic leadership that we had. and so the article starts out noting that foreclosures already popped chicago's poor neighborhoods but the downtown still was booming as the federal reserve bank of chicago convened its annual conference in may of 2007. i'm quoting from the article n now: "the keynote speaker, federal reserve chairman ben

bernanke, assured the bankers and businessmen gathered at the westin hotel that their prosperity was not threatened by the plight of borrowers struggling to repay high-cost subprime loans and i quote from mr. bernanke. he said to the audience. "importantly, we see no serious broad spill overto banks or thrift institutions from the problems in the subprime market. the troubled lenders for the most part have not been institutions with federally insured deposits." end of quote. the article goes on to note "the fed's failure to see the crisis happened in part because it did not understand the risks that banks were taking. ing according to documents and interviews with bank executives and regulatory experts."

that's one example. the second example is that bernanke had reached the conclusion that essentially the financial system would self-regulate. he said -- and i read the article now -- "bernanke said the country entered an era of smaller and frequent downturns which he and others called the great moderation." it notes -- and i make this as a third point from this article -- "the fed let citigroup make vast investments without having to cover losses." the article goes on to explain the story with citigroup and that the reserves were tied into a decision by the fed, specifically, that a decision was made under accounting rules that when they bought into a pool of securities, that those securities were viewed as so

stable they didn't need to set aside significant reserves. here's the interesting thing, that even though they bought those securities and sold them, they had pledged to cover losses if borrowers defaulted. so they had a significant risk even after these securities had been sold. but that risk was not taken into account when those reserves requirement was set. we can turn to another piece of this. there was a report done by the fed called the large financial institutions perspectives on risk, and it found -- quote -- "no substantial issues of supervisory concern for large financial institutions." as you all might recall, many financial institutions were doing regulatory shopping, looking for the regulator that would give them the best deal or the regulator that knew the least about their affairs, so

they could hardly even ask the right questions. this was certainly a factor in the a.i.g. going down. the fed regulators looked at national city's books and its management and again found nothing amiss. in reality, the bank was ailing. subprime borrowers were starting to default. less than two months after the fed approved the merger, national city reported a loss of $19 million and the company never returned to profitability. the fed's failure to see the rot inside national city resulted from the central bank's -- that is the fed's -- reliance on others to identify problems. they weren't asking the right questions and didn't have a team that they were going out making sure that they understood what was going on. now, there was another example of this in january 2005. national city's chief economist delivered a warning to the fed's

board of governors, and that warning was that an increasingly overvalued housing market posed a threat to the broader economy. this message, the article says, was not well received. one board member expressed particular skepticism, and that board member was ben bernanke. bernanke said "what do you think it will be the worst, "bernanke asked according to people attending the meeting. i have to say california said the economist. bernanke replied, they have been saying that about california since i bought my first house in 1979. ben bernanke did not think that there was an issue even to be thoroughly explored and wrestled with. there is additional information in this article about the fed's power when mergers occurred. and it notes, the fed's power to

reject a merger application involving golden west and wachovia was a potentially important check on the wave of mergers that created banks so large their distress would threaten the economy. from 1999 through last month the fed approved applications to create or buy a bank and in that time denied only one. that power in the fed regarding mergers was not utilized. and then finally, let me note an issue regarding bossell. again i quote from "the washington post" analysis, even on the verge of the financial crisis, the fed continued to push for new international rules that would let many large banks hold less capital. under the proposed rules called bosell2 after the swiss city where they were drafted regulates further increase their reliance on the bank's risk

assessments. sheila blare, chairman of the fdic, warned as follows. she said the new rules come uncomfortably close to letting banks set their own requirements. unquote. well, again, ben bernanke this last year has done a good job with the fire hose, but now we need to rebuild the economic house for the prosperity of our families. and the person to rebuild this house is not the person who sat at the table and made mistake after mistake after mistake over an eight-year period that led to this house, this financial house of ours burning down with catastrophic results for our families across this nation. this is why i opposed ben bernanke's nomination to again be chairman of the fed when i

was in the banking committee last month, and this is why i will oppose this nomination on the floor of this senate. thank you very much, mr. president. mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the prese roll. quorum call:

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a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. a senator: i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. a senator: mr. president, i rise today to speak about the incident that occurred on christmas day when our nation was targeted by a terrorist who attempted to bring down a plane with 278 passengers and 11 crew members. mr. lemieux this attack would have -- mr. lemieux: this would have resulted in mass casualties, thankfully it didn't occur much in part because of the vigilance of nearby passengers and for the graced god this terrorist was not able to detonate his explosives that he carried under

his clothes. we should respond as if the worst happened. what would we be doing today if that plane had exploded over the skies of michigan and all of its passengers had died? when the plane landed, the nigerian terrorist, umar farouk abdulmutallab was questioned by authorities. what happened next is very worrisome. instead of treating mr. abdu abl dual like the economy combatant that he is, he was afforded what is provided in the constitution. he was provided his miranda rights, right to remain silent, the right to have an attorney. the information that if he did not remain silent, it could be

used against him. and, of course, as best we know once he was provided with these rights, he stopped talking to those who are questioning him. so what information did we fail to learn? what information about yemen, the newest breeding ground for al qaeda and other terrorist groups who are launching attacks against our country, what information did we fail to learn? what did we fail to learn about the next attack that is coming whether it will be, again, in an airplane or another type of terrorist attack? those questions were not asked and they could not be answered because we treated the terrorist like an american citizen. we gave him all of the constitutional protections yet those protections were never meant for people we are fighting against in a war. and, mr. president, that is why

i come today to the floor of the united states senate because we are treating these terrorists from the christmas day bomber to khalid sheikh mohammed, who we are going to try in a federal court in new york, a civilian court. we are treating them as if they are common criminals. and in so doing, we are losing ground in the war on terrorism. and we cheapen the value of being an american citizen wall of the rights that are afforded to us when we grant terrorists who seek to end our way of life with those same protections. why are we providing miranda rights and other constitutional protections to terrorists? terrorist -- terrorists at the expense of the security of the american people? who in our government is making this decision? who is saying that these terrorists should have these rights? who made the decision to mir

randize the christmas day bomber and treat him as a criminal defendant instead of an unlawful enemy combatant. instead of treating this as a criminal law inaction, we need to recognize that we're at war. now, it is not the kind of war that our grandfathers fought in world war ii or our fathers out in vietnam. it is what they call an as asymetrical war. those waging the war against us are trying to destroy the america as we know it. not unlike the enemies that we've in our past wars. and we lose the edge against these enemies in this war by failing to gain the information that we could gain, should gain from lawful and proper

interrogation. information that's not gained as soon as miranda rights are given. this week the director of national intelligence, dennis blair, the national counterterrorism center director, michael lighter, and the department of homeland security director, janet napolitano all testified before committees in this congress and this senate surrounding the incident concerning umar farouk abduabdul duel and each said tht they were not consulted on prosecuting abdulmutallab in a civilian rather than military court. these are people supposedly at frontlines of homeland and fighting terrorism. the director of national intelligence, a position created to stand on top of all of the other intelligence gathering

organizations to break down the silo so that we could gain information, connect the dots, as you hear, which, of course, did not happen for this event. but that position, the chief intelligence officer of the united states of america not informed why we were prosecuting abdulmutallab as a civilian. michael lighter, the head of the national counterterrorism center, trying to counter the terrorism that's affecting our country, i had the opportunity, mr. president, to question directodirector leiter, and alte was careful not to contradict the administration, it's clear to me that he would rather we treat these enemy combatants as what they are, not as common criminals. so who made this decision? was it the attorney general of the united states? was it the president?

mr. president, whomever made this decision, we need to know that. that information needs to be before the united states senate because it is a questionable call at best. in fact, mr. president, i would submit it's the wrong call to treat these non-american citizens as if they had all the rights that we do. we are losing the war on terrorism if we do not gain the valuable information to stop terrorist attacks before they start. someone, mr. president, from this administration needs to come forward and own up to this decision. and i call upon the administration to do so. the american people deserve answers. our policymakers have to come clean. and we should be able to ask them questions and ask the right person's questions as to why this decision was made. we should not be trying terrorists in civilian courts. we should not be giving them miranda rights and other constitutional protections. we should be fighting the war on

terrorism as if our very lives depend upon it. because they do. mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent that the following remarks be entered separately in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lemieux: mr. president, i rise now to speak about the situation in hate andy the tragic events that occurred last tuesday around 5:00 p.m. when a massive earthquake, measuring seven points on the richter scale, occurred near port-au-prince, the capital of hatecy. as a senator from florida, i have a deep connection to the haitian people because we have more than 200,000 haitians in our community in florida. and watching what happened on television and these graphic pictures that we've all seen on the news of the tragedy that has occurred as families have been separated and lost, children have been orphaned, but we've also seen encouraging shots.

those of people being rescued. we all saw the shot a couple of days ago of the 75-year-old lady who was rescued. yesterday a small boy and sister pulled out of the rubble amazingly a week -- buried a week alive and made it out. it gives us hope. but the projections are grim with perhaps as many as 150,000 haitians dead. it is a staggering figure. it is a tragic loss of humanity. last week i was in miami, along with the governor and other officials as we met to talk about what our response would be. we worked with the coast guard and southern command to make sure that our rescue teams from miami, who have done work all around the world, would have the opportunity to join the other search and rescue teams to help bring out the living and to find

the dead to return them home. and we've been very successful in doing that and we're very thankful for all of those americans and very proud, as i am, especially of the ones from florida, who have been doing such great work. while i was down in miami, i had the chance to go to little haiti, which is our largest haitian american community, and visit the students at st. mary's school. i -- it is the school next to the catholic cathedral in miami-dade county. i visited with the monsignor and sister jane stoker who is the principal of the school. i saw all these beautiful haitian children who were there in their school uniforms, and they had come to school that morning. it was the day after the earthquake, crying. because they have family and loved ones on the island of hispaniola. and they put their pennies and quarters together to raise $500

to send over to rescue and help the haitian people. it's a touching story. and the american people have been touched, too, because now we know that tens of millions of dollars have been raised, and former president bush and former president clinton have come together under the request of president obama to lead a relief effort so that we all could contribute and we all must and we all should. i'm thankful to rear admiral steve graham of the seventh district of the united states coast guard who has been on the ground and instrumental in making sure that the relief efforts and the coast guard's help could be there to help these folks, and one thing specifically that he has been able to help with i'll talk about in a moment concerns the students from lynn university in boca raton. but i want to talk, mr. president, about some of the heroes, some of our floridians who have been so instrumental in helping the haitian people.

i want to talk about a fort pierce-based nonprofit organization called missionary flights international that began flying food and supplies to haiti daily. since the earthquake, the organization has collected donations and gathered volunteers to load food and water and supplies on their planes, and in one day alone, the organization sent more than 400,000 ready meals to be eaten in haiti. another organization, the big heart brigade in palm beach, is shipping 140,000 meals ready to eat this week. the big heart brigade provides meals to many in south florida, but in the wake of the tragedy, they focused their efforts on haiti. i want to talk about a mr. hank asher who i happen to know well in boca raton, florida, who immediately took his plane and started flying in doctors and nurses from jackson memorial and needed supplies into haiti and

brought back the wounded and the injured back to florida, and we were able to give him some assistance in trying to get in and out shortly after the disaster. but the good people of florida and the good people of this country are opening their hearts and their wallets and their pocketbooks to help the people of haiti, as they should. i look forward to going to haiti once the rescue -- the search and rescue portion is over in order to assess the situation myself and see what else i can do to help that nation recover. mr. president, i also, as i mentioned a minute ago, want to talk about the lynn university students. many folks watching this on television today have seen the parents of these students. now, there were 12 there with faculty members, and some of them were able to get home. they were recovered and returned, but alive, but now we know that there are four

students still missing and two faculty still missing, and we remain hopeful that these young ladies and their two faculty members will make it home back to florida. we have christine giancasi, stephanie crispanelli, courtney hayes and britt jengle along with two faculty members. i have been talking to dr. ross, the president of lynn university, and my office along with other members of congress have been trying to assist in the efforts to find these students that were in the hotel montana which fell shortly after the earthquake. mr. president, yesterday i sent a letter to secretary clinton, administrator shaw, and secretary gates, and i would ask unanimous consent that a copy of this letter dated january 21, 2010, be entered into the record at the conclusion of my remarks.

in that letter, we have asked that the search and rescue efforts continue. we saw the miraculous discovery of that young boy and young girl yesterday. there are people potentially still alive buried in the rubble, and we must continue while there is some hope to look for survivors. but if there are no survivors, we request in this letter that their loved ones be brought home so they can be here in the united states, and it's a request, i think, that we all understand and we have been working with secretary clinton's office and we know that they share the same view. but i wanted to bring that to the attention of the united states senate. as a parent of young children, i cannot imagine the loss and the feeling of loss that these parents from lynn university and others who have -- are still waiting for the recovery,

potential recovery as the days grow longer and the hours go by of their family members, especially the loss it must be for these parents, the idea of losing a child. mr. president, there is nothing more tragic that you can think of, so our hearts go out to them. they are in our prayers, and we look forward to the hopeful return of these students and faculty, but if not their return alive, then at least bringing them home so that they can have rest and peace back in the united states of america. with that, mr. president, i would yield the floor. mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

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