they don't get to give speeches but they play a very integral and important role on how this issue works. i'm very grateful to all of them. and with that, mr. president, i'm going to ask that the pending amendment be set aside and on behalf of senator rockefeller, i call up amendment number 3758 and ask that once reported by number, the amendment be set aside. the presiding officer: without objection, the clerk will report. the clerk: mr. dodd for mr. rockefeller and others proposes an amendment numbered 3758 to amendment number 3739. mr. dodd: mr. president, i'll -- i'm looking at my floor staff. i'll note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. dodd: i ask unanimous consent that the call of the quorum be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. dodd: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. dodd: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 296, hfer 714, virgin islands national park. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 296, h.r. 714, an act to authorize the secretary of the interior to lease certain lands in virgin islands national park and for other purposes.

the presiding officer: without objection, the senate shall proceed to the measure. mr. dodd: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendments be considered and agreed to the bill as amed be read three times, passed and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table en bloc, that any statements relating to the measure appear at the appropriate place in the record as if read. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. dodd: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 315, s. 1132. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 315, s. 1132, a bill to amend title 18 united states code to improve the provisions relating to the carrying of concealed weapons by law enforcement officers and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. dodd: i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill as amend be read a third time and passed, the motions to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate, any statements related to the bill be placed in the record at the appropriate place

as if read. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. dodd: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 273, s. 2768. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 273, s. 2768, a bill to amend title 49 united states code to authorize appropriations for the national transportation safety board for fiscal years 2010 through 2014 and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, senate proceed to the measure. mr. dodd: i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be considered, that a dorgan-rockefeller amendment which is at the desk be agreed to, the substitute amendment, as amend, be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time and passed, that an amendment to the title which is at the desk be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action for debate, and any statements being be placed in the record at the appropriate price as if read. officer without objection, so ordered.

mr. dodd: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. res. 525, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 525, expressing sympathy to the families of those killed in the sinking of the republic of korea ship and solidarity with the republic of korea in the aftermath of this tragic incident. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. dodd: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate and 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. dodd: mr. president, as in executive session, i ask unanimous consent that the injunction of secrecy be removed from the following treaty transmitted to the senate on may 13, 2010, by the president of the united states. treaty with russia on measures for further reduction in limitation of strategic

offensive arms, treaty document number 111-5. i further ask that the treat be considered as having been read the first time, that it be referred with accompanying papers to the committee on foreign relations in order to be printed and that the president's message be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. dodd: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the appointments at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. dodd: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, friday, may 14. that following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, the senate resume consideration of s. 3217, wall street reform. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. dodd: mr. president, as previously announced, there will be no roll call votes during friday's session of the senate.

if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until

the now reconfirmation hearing for president obama's nominee to head u.s. customs and border protection. alan person has been serving in the position since the recess appointment in march. he faces questions at this hearing about the legal status of several household workers he hired. max baucus of montana injures the finance committee. this was one hour and 40 minutes. in multiple conversations >> the hearing will come to order. theodore roosevelt said, and i quote, the virtues of courage, donner, justice, truth, sincerity mead america. president of, appointed to commissioner of customs and border protection and such as you and the agency that you lead must display the traits to find

as american. you must show courage, donner, justice, truth, the sincerity and party who. hewey and the agency lead or the face of america. customs agents represent america to millions across the borders every year. americans return home from foreign soil your agents to greet them. when emigrants' reach the borders the agents who greet them. when merchandise flows across the borders this is a treat to be to facilitate trade. you enforce our triet laws. and when the wrongdoers' sent hazardous products to the shores your agents work to protect us. you have a tall order. customs and border protection have a twin mission. it helps to maintain economic security and help defend

national security. as you pursue your task as commissioner you must commit to carrying out both of your agency's between mission and must do so with equal footing. you must remember your agencies can facilitate international trade at the beginning it in force america's trade laws and you must review and strengthen your focus on this historical treatment and. you must do so not at the expense of your security mission but in concert with it. i expect you to bring as much sensitivity to this task as i know you will bring to securing the nation's borders. international trade is a vital component of the american economy. in 2009 america imported more than $1.5 trillion of goods. our economy simply cannot function at the root flow of international trade.

last summer, senator grassley and i introduced the customs facilitation trade enforcement reauthorization act and hope this committee and congress will address the customs reauthorization this year. as the commissioner of customs, you must carry out your duties and represent america with courage, honor and truth and display these in your personal life as well as your professional capacity. at the heart of your credibility as the commissioner of speed donner and will be the enforcement of the laws about whether one of employees are legally able to work here. and this duty goes to the heart of responsibilities in the department of homeland security. mr. bersin, while the finance committee was betting your nomination we discovered that you failed to properly complete and maintain employment eligibility verification forms otherwise known as i-9. you failed to do so for any of

the ten household employees whom you employed over the past two decades. as the person responsible for securing the nation's borders, your failure to follow all in this matter is unacceptable. during the april recess president obama exercised his power to make recess appointments. among those appointments was yours. the constitution gives the president the right. but it is also the right of the senate and the role of this committee to view your record and decide whether you will be allowed to continue your service beyond 2011. the committee has a constitutional responsibility to the american people to carefully review nominations in its jurisdiction and as a nominee for commission, you have response over the to provide complete and honest information. now, however that you have been appointed it is now your duty to both facilitate our economic security and to ensure the

national security. as you do so i urge you to consider carefully the treats the president roosevelt described as quintessentially american i urge you to adopt them as you fulfill your leadership responsibilities and that you conduct yourself and your agency in the matter that brings pride to your office, your people and your country. and now to the witness from california senator boxer. we are very honored to have you here. why don't you proceed. >> thank you very much mr. chairman, members of the committee. i would ask unanimous consent to a pleasing to the record senator feinstein's statement on behalf of alan bersin. >> without objection. >> i'm pleased today to be here to represent alan bersin, president obama's nominee of customs and border protection. mr. bersin has been serving as commissioner since march as a trusted public servant with a

wealth of experience and knowledge in issues critical to the mission of u.s. customs and border protection. border security enforcing the law protecting the nation's homeland and economic security. i've known alan for many years and in 1993i recommended president clinton nominate him to serve as u.s. attorney for the southern district of california. in addition to his u.s. attorney's duties, he was named by attorney general janet reno to be the special representative for u.s. border issues. as a border guard alan was responsible for coordinating federal law enforcement activities on the southwest border stretching from texas to california. he made strengthening the southwest border and cracking down on drug smugglers his top priority. it was during this time that alan learned of the many challenges facing law enforcement personnel on the border, a perspective that has served him well as assistance secretary for international affairs and special

representative for border affairs at the department of homeland security and now u.s. customs and border protection commissioner. mr. chairman and members, californians understand the mission and the work of u.s. customs and border protection very well. many of my constituents work for the cbp and countless other californians frequently contacted the officials whether their local law enforcement officials who had helped protect the border and prevent the flow of illegal drugs, court officials and transportation workers to move cargo in and out of california land and sea ports or business owners seeking a city, safe and legitimate flow of goods between nations. californians also no alan bersin very well. throughout his career, alan has gained the confidence and respect of leaders in both parties. he was appointed california secretary of education by republican governor schwarzenegger, and my friend, jerry sanders, the republican mayor of san diego, selected

alan to lead the san diego airport regional authority. alan also has led the san diego county school district, serves on the california state board of education, taught law at the uc-berkeley hall and university of san diego school of law and he served as special counsel to the los angeles priests commission. governor schwarzenegger has called alan, quote come and export on the border security issues, who, quote, knows the importance of encouraging legitimate international trade and travel. californians know alan understands the key will u.s. customs border protection please and securing the borders comic to the americans save and protecting u.s. economic interests. this is a very important time for u.s. customs and border protection. our nation's to the commission faces threats of the border with the illegal immigration, drug smiling because smuggling threatening border communities. in addition to defending the borders come every day cbp

officials deal with enormous task of insuring the safety and security of trade cargo that enters the u.s. preventing intellectual property theft and counterfeiting enforcing trade law. he also insures save and what it to become much of that travel between nearly 7,000 miles of land border with mexico and canada process over 50,000 truck and rail and sea cargo containers they seized illegal drugs and apprehend criminals and inspect cargo for harmful agricultural tests. they serve on the front line and so many critical areas and alan bersin is qualified to lead this agency. so i joined those republicans and democrats alike who say to you please move forward with this confirmation. and we think you so much for the opportunity to be here. >> thank you, center, very much. we appreciate it in your full statement will be in the record as well as senator feinstein. we appreciate your advising the committee of what course we

should take. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. >> all right. mr. bersin, your full statement will be part of the record. why don't you proceed. >> thank you mr. sherman. german bachus, members of the committee, i thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. senator baucus, i look forward in the context of these questions and answers to respond very directly to the concerns and value that i share. in 20 years of public service, the reputation for truthfulness and straightforwardness is one that i cherished and nourished with care, and i need to clarify and set straight in your mind and in the mind of the members of this committee any doubt to the contrary. let me begin by introducing members of my family who are here --

>> [inaudible] and have them stand, too, so that we will see them. >> first, my wife, judge lisa foster in the court at san diego california. >> george foster, welcome to have you here. >> second, members of the committee, our daughter, elisa, and played by the affiliate of the urban outfitters company in philadelphia. third, zach miller, elisa's fiancee. they will be married just over two weeks in california. >> congratulations both of you. >> and lastly, a mere member of the family, terran heinrich who's been at my side assisting in school systems as well as and law enforcement and sacramento and now at cbp in washington. >> welcome. ..

and all too often what ultimate sacrifice. before joining you here this morning senators, i participated in the valor ceremony customs and border protection. which will continue this afternoon. we commemorate those men and

women who have given their lives in service of the country and the agency. it is an honor to work with the men and women of customs and border protection and i look forward to discussing with you, as i have begun to do with them, my vision for cbp and my fitness and qualifications for the job. i've spent most most of my adult life living and working along the border and i have seen first-hand the challenges and the issues involved with border security and with facilitating economic activity, trade and travel across the border. by jobs have reached from the private sector as a corporate attorney practicing commercial law, to law enforcement as united states attorney, the attorney general southwest border representative and most recently as homeland security's assistant secretary for international affairs and secretary napolitano's special representative for border

affairs. my public service has included participation and leadership in the educational sector is superintendent of schools in san diego, california secretary of education and then moved on as chairperson of the san diego county regional airport authority. by experiences have varied, but in these jobs and as a private citizen, i've been involved in many of the issues that are at of the day today, bread-and-butter concerns of customs and border protection. these include border security, law enforcement, working with international partners, working with the public and with the trade groups, facilitating lawful movement of trade and travel and running, leading and managing large and complex organizations. cbp has critical security and trade missions. my experience in the private

sector and government has convinced me that these two missions facilitating trade, and ensuring security, which are often presented as being antithetical or zero-sum, can in fact be complementary. when we apply the right strategies and marshal the right combinations of personnel, infrastructure and technology, we can increase our security and we can fill us to take the flows of lawful trade and lawful travel. the key i believe to segment-- is the segment that flows the people and goods by the level of risk they present. risk segmentation allows us to focus our law enforcement resources on the people or goods that we know are dangerous or about which we know and in term mineralized the goods and people we know are not dangerous but are lawful and legitimate. trusted travel programs like century, nexus and global entry

are examples of such an approach by allowing travelers to volunteer for appropriate screening and background checks, cbp is able to quickly process, preapproved, low-risk travelers and focus on other travelers about whom we know less. the same applies to cargo good and trusted shipper program such as the customs trade partnership against terrorism. to be clear, nonetheless, our overarching mandate is to protect the safety and the security of the american people. the attempted bombing of flight 253 on december 25 and the recent attempt to detonate a car bomb in times square makes clear that we continue to face serious threats. every day cbp officers and agents interdict and stop threats ed and between our land, air and sea ports of entry.

empowering cbp's operators to do their jobs will be the focus of my time and cbp. that means making sure they have the resources, equipment, training and intelligence and the leadership, the support and to fill their vital security missions. i would like to thank you and your colleagues for the support you have shown cbp. with the resources congress has provided, cbp has experienced unprecedented growth since 2004. it is now an agency of more than 57,000 employees. the border patrol has doubled in size, and we are more secure with much work to be done. i am sensitive to the concerns that cbp has not paid enough attention to facilitating international trade, concerns that are reflected in senate bill 1631. the customs facilitation trade reauthorization act. what i want to make clear to you

today senators is my commitment to work with the congress and private sector in the trade community and others within the federal government on trade facilitation issues. i know the importance of international trade to the united states economy and remaining economically competitive. i also know there are areas in which cbp can improve. i welcome some of the ideas and the customs reauthorization act and i look forward to working with you to implement them. i want also to emphasize that intellectual property rights protection and consumer product safety as well as trade security are critical enforcement priorities for our agency. i pledge to take your concerns into account, to work with the trade community, to provide notice of our intended activity and to remain as transparent as possible with congress and the private sector and the trade community and other agencies concerning decisions being made

affecting trade at cbp. mr. chairman, it is an honor to appear before you, the ranking member and the members of this committee. i look forward to our dialogue and to responding to any questions you may have. >> thank you mr. bersin. >> mr. chairman and members of the committee i am late getting my opening statement because i had an amendment on the floor of the senate, so thank you for this opportunity. welcome mr. bersin, and also welcome to your family and friends. this hearing reinforces the role that the senate finance committee served with respect to presidential nominations. the administration should learn from this hearing that the advice and consent roles of senate is not something to be taken lightly and the due diligence undertaken by the committee is not something to be simply brushed aside, and i complement the chairman for reinforcing that point with this

hearing. denomination was recessed appointed on march the 27th, despite knowledge that the administration had, that the finance committee on a bipartisan basis, and i want to emphasize bipartisan, had serious concerns with respect to conflicting information pertaining to the proper documentation of domestic staff hired by the nominee. and we should put that in him on the record, mr. chairman. >> without objection. >> the u.s. customs and border protection plays a crucial role at our nation's borders. the agency is charged with dual mission of protecting our homeland and facilitating the legitimate flow of international trade. there are 57,000 employees, and it enforces laws for over 40 agencies of the government.

one and 7 cents trillion dollars worth of imported goods and collected about $30 billion in duties and fees, so very, very important. as a result, decisions made by any commissioner of customs has a fast impact on economic welfare of our nation, and that is why it is imperative that a proper balance be struck between the agencies dual responsibilities and for several years now i've been concerned that the agencies customs revenue and commercial functions have not been sufficiently prioritized. it is important that commissioner bersin restore the right balance. for example, full implementation of automating commercial environment and international trade data systems are critical to facilitating the trade flows, yet the development of these systems is significantly behind

schedule. i look forward to hearing how the commissioner intends to get that implementation back on track. another concern that i would like to raises the level of consultation between customs border patrol and congressional oversight committees, as well as consultation between cbp and other federal agencies over the past few years. there have been three instances in which cbp issued a preliminary ruling without consulting appropriately and as a result, cbp was forced to withdraw or suspend rulemaking. i would like to hear the commissioner say whether he shares this concern and if so, how he would address it as a priority. finally, i would note that last year senator baucus and i introduce customs facilitation and trade enforcement reauthorization act to reauthorize cbp and reprioritize its trade functions, so any

views on that bill would be very much appreciated. instead of my oral presentation, i gave a shortened version of a longer statement and i would like to ask the longer statement take the place of what i just said. >> thank you senator. >> mr. bersin i have three standard questions we ask all nominees and i will ask them right now. first come is there anything aware of in your background that might present a conflict of interest for the duties or jobs in which you have been nominated? >> no sir. >> de novo any reason, person or otherwise that would in any way prevent you from fully and honorably discharging their responsibilities for the office and what you have been nominated? >> no mr. ciaran and. >> do you agree to respond to any reasonable summons to appear and testify before any duly constituted committee of congress? pie douceur except otherwise required by law. >> what would that be?

>> i do, sir. >> thank you. >> i've not heard any other witness make that reservation. and you have now withdrawn that reservation? >> i have sir. >> mr. bersin, as commissioner chris and you are responsible for enforcing america's immigration laws at our borders, and during the finance committee vetting process, you failed to timely complete and maintain weekly required i-9 forms that verify your household employees were legally authorized to work in the united states. your failure to maintain i-9 forms clearly goes to the heart of your responsibility as the commissioner of customs and obviously is concerning. can you explain to the committee why do you failed to complete and maintain i-9 forms or your household employees? >> mr. chairman i want to emphasize that from the beginning, the lack of i-9 forms has been fully disclosed, that in fact my wife and i and, in

the case of each of the employees that have been involved in our household over the last 20 years, their eligibility to work in the united states has been verified. in each case, documentation of the same kind that is required with regard to the i-9 form that is the occasion to fill out and maintain in the household files are in the business files, passports, permanent resident cards, drivers licenses, social security cards. in each case and with respect to each employee, we verify the eligibility of that person to work in the united states. similarly, with regard to each of those persons, we were sure to pay taxes do with regard to the employment and all of those taxes were due and paid with the exception of $56 that was a

deficit from our accountant and connection for the committee staff discovered in his been paid that over 20 years, no employee and eligible to work in the united states has ever worked in our household. no employee who has worked in our household has not had taxes paid in connection with that employment. mr. chairman, as i have acknowledged that my wife and i simply did not know, and we were mistaken in not knowing, that in the i-9 form was the form that needed to record-- report the information that i just alluded to, passport numbers, social security numbers, driver's licenses. instead of having it on that form, we had it on a piece of paper that was in a file and maintained by us in our home. it was a mistake. >> isn't it true though that the vetting process began with that point and you did not provide

any i-9's for any of the 10 employees? >> we did not because we did not know that they were necessary, but at the same time. >> i am surprised you didn't know it was necessary. when you are a u.s. attorney. were you aware at that time of the i-9? >> mr. chairman i was aware that in the business contacts, that i-9's needed to be filled out so that they could be maintained by the business and available for inspection. there were investigations by the then immigration and naturalization service, looking to enforce civilly requirements of the immigration act. but at no time did i no, and make the connection that in the domestic context of household employees, that they were required but i want to emphasize mr. chairman. >> isn't an employer and employee or whether a business employer or a domestic employer?

i-9 forms issued by the department of homeland security. >> i am aware of the former requirement now and i have made clear that i acknowledged the error and the mistake and the violation, and will obviously see to it in the future that the form is filled out on the form prescribed by the government and maintained in that form, but i do want to emphasize that the underlying documentation was reviewed and that the eligibility of every employee who worked for us and with us was verified and i believe that has been acknowledged by the committee staff. >> i find it incredible you didn't know about the i-9 obligation. that just doesn't pass the credibility test. >> mr. chairman, if i had known about it, if my wife had known about it, it would yield no difficulty to actually put the

information on the i-9 form. i didn't know about it. i did not benefit by not having it in the file in that form. there was no reason why we would not do it if we knew it. we did not know that it applied to, in the case of employee since 2006, part-time housecleaning help. when we verify their eligibility and had written down the documentation that indicated their eligibility to work. >> i-9's is something that this committee should pay little attention to. and this piece of paper is worthless in your view. we should not have to throw it out and if they don't throw it out, sometimes years later if they get around to it, even though the law provides and i forgot the exact dates, the day of the higher i think as i recall, perhaps incorrectly, three business days later that

the employer must fill out his portion of the i-9. you are basically saying it is erroneous. >> i'm not saying it is a relevant. >> you don't know about it, no big deal, fill it out-- fill it out later when you get around to it. that is what it sounds like. >> what i am saying is it is a form and i-- but i am also saying that having the information on another piece of paper that is the same information shows the respect for the need to verify eligibility in a way that not having that information in the first place would indicate. if we had known of that form we would have used it because we have the information. we were able to make it available to the committee staff and i believe that the substance of the immigration law was observed. that is not to say, and i think we have acknowledged.

>> did we receive those other documents? >> yes. >> what in particular? >> we had photocopies of the passports, the passport cards with regard to two employees. two employees were u.s. citizens and their passports were provided. a third employee with a permanent resident and her permanent resident card was provided. i don't believe, as well as copies of social security cards, and in one case i believe a california driver's license. >> the obvious question is, you know the job commissioner of customs, you are basically in charge of overseeing a lot of verification and the voracity and truthfulness of employees, and it just seems like you are pretty cavalier about i-9's and you are basically saying if i hear you correctly, that i-9's are not that important and that

documentation, i-9's are not that important and you were saying that we should overlook the failure to fill out the i-9's from employees, just overlook it. >> mr. chairman, i am not denying the error, denying the violation with regard to the form in which the information was contained. what i am saying and i say this as a former prosecutor, with regard to the immigration and customs enforcement that would be the enforcement agency, that if a person stepping back for my own personal situation, if a person have the information called for by the ini, copies of passports, copies of permanent resident cards, copies of social security cards, copies of this information, to demonstrate the eligibility of the persons who work in the united states, it would not remove the violation, but would it put into ligon into

context that failure that maintained the information in that form. that is as far as i would say that there is a difference. >> but, what documents did you think you had to provide and where did you get that information with respect to those documents? >> senator from the time i was u.s. attorney and in the time of the clinton administration from the zoe baird incident on i knew there were two requirements and my wife and i identified each of those with each employee over the next 20 years. the first is that people working in their household needed to be eligible to work in the united states and he needed to see proof and evidence of that eligibility. we did that in the case of every employee. the second requirement was that household employees needed to be, you needed to pay household taxes with regard to people working in the household. every employee over 20 years has

the taxes paid for in the documentation establishing that is not in dispute. >> senator grassley. >> the finance committee memo on your nomination dated may the 12 states that he received advice during the vetting process that some of your employees could be categorized as independent contractors. i want to know who gave you this advice and in what capacity were they working on your nomination? >> senator grassley, ranking member grassley, let me put that statement and exchange with your staff in the context. from 2006, until now, as indicated in response to the committees questionnaire, we employed six people in our household. three of them were providing housecleaning services part-time, three days a week.

the other three persons who worked in our household were college students, who were from the local college in san diego, who drove from time to time our children, since my wife and i both worked, drove them to appointments and required school events or sporting events. they were paid on an hourly basis, and as i say, they use their own automobile to drive our children. of those six employees, my wife and i treated all of them the same. consistent with what i had said, from the two decades we look to assure that they were eligible to work in the united states. we verify their eligibility. the second is, we pay their taxes. it was only after the confirmation process and the

vetting process that the distinction was made that suggested that the college students, who were paid on an hourly basis, who worked sporadically, who use their own cards, were independent contractors and it appeared to me that they, but that was a fair characterization. i regret making that distinction senator because in fact we had not made that distinction in terms of paying their taxes and verifying their eligibility. >> did somebody advise you on this, because i'm not questioning-- i just want to get, who gave you that advice and what capacity were they working on your nomination during the vetting process? >> senator in connection with analyzing the nature of the employment duties, i received advice from within the department of homeland security. i also received advice from lawyers and friends from outside of the government.

i talk to people obviously in connection with the vetting process at the white house. i am responsible for having made the distinction, and i take, i am accountable for that. it strikes me as a distinction-- it should not have guided my response to the committee staff. >> did anybody advise you to not discuss the employee independent contractor switch with the committee? did anybody advise you? >> senator, no. that is a decision that i made, but i want to emphasize senator grassley that there was no intent in fact to conceal those three college students, because in fact they were listed on tax returns that were provided to the committee. schedule a list of them.

do is not a question and i stood to benefit in no way from having concealed the employment of those three students. their names came to the attention of the staff, because they were in the tax documents that we provided the staff. >> okay, what advice would you give another nominee in a similar situation who had received similar advice? >> not to make distinctions that weren't made at the time. that is to say, there were no distinctions made in the way the people were treated in terms of verifying their eligibility and paying their taxes, i would not throw a distinction in the context and then analyzing it, looking backward. >> i would like to go onto another matter i want to discuss with you, and this comes from a november 18, 2009 story in the san diego reader. the story said you have a personal financial stayed in a

border real estate through a partnership called otay terminal. it was created in october of 96 with their relatives during this time he served as u.s. attorney for the southern district of california and also as attorney attorney general of the south worst border representative. in fact your sf 278 indicates that you still have an interest in otay terminal properties. would you describe it in your involvement with it, and if you are related to any other investors in otay property? >> this was a family organized-- it was organized by my father-in-law who was then deceased. i was a limited partner along with my wife, lisa, and took no active role for involvement in the management, and that property was disposed of seven

or eight or nine years ago. the otay partnership that is reflected in the 278 does not contain, does not include that property at the u.s. mexican border on the edge of it. >> okay. i do have a question. when the property was involved, was your involvement in this partnership appropriate given your position as a u.s. attorney, and as the attorney attorney general southwest border representative? >> i believe so senator. there was no activity that i took either in connection with the property or as u.s. attorney that affected the value or disposition of that real estate. >> so then, maybe my last question is not appropriate. you don't have any interest now in otay properties? is that you what you are saying?

>> otay properties is an llc. it does not hold the property that was referenced in that article that you just referred to. >> okay, then let me ask you this last question then. it in your role of-- is a truce conceivable that it could impact the value of these properties? >> no, sir. >> the next person is under our arrival is mr. bingaman and then mr. bunning and the senator from washington, and then the senator from texas. >> mr. bersin thank you for being here, and congratulations on your appointment to this important position. let me just state, and i don't need to ask you any more questions. i think we have gone through this subject extensively here, but let me just state that in my view, it is clear that you complied with the spirit of the immigration laws in that you

made a legal determination, a determination as to the legal status of employees. ..

it's clear when you look at the violence going on in mexico particularly the city of juarez and other northern mexican cities that much of that violence is fed by vendor ready availability of large amounts of cash, large amounts of weaponry that come across from the united states. and i am concerned that we don't have in place the necessary infrastructure, the dedicated all bound inspection teams that we need to monitor any of that.

is this something that is getting fixed? what is your view on this? >> senator bingaman, the notion that we need to pay attention not only to the matters coming north through the borders but rather going south, the cycle of drugs, guns and cash is actually one continuous cycle that requires an attention to outbound as well as inbound and cooperation with mexico is at the core of secretary napolitano and the administration's approach to the problems of the southwest border. last march in a 2009 when the secretary announced the initiative with respect to the southwest border she instructed customs and border protection and rac to engage in self and checks on a regular basis. there are two parts to this, senator. one was the creation of teams, customs and border protection field operations, cbpo to the

point of entry working with state and local police officers under stone garden grants as well as immigration's customs enforcement agents started to do systematic inspections going south. the second part is what you eluted to with regard to technology. we do not have in most of the points of entry either on the northern border or the southern border a system of capturing data with regard to license plates going south. we do in some places across from tijuana. we are moving to remedy that in two ways by creating the license plate readings of the from the point of entry and where we have the footprint to be able to put the technology in place we are looking to do that because we accept this as an important function of the agency. >> let me ask one more question

on that very issue because this license plate reading capability as you indicated is in place and a few locations it is not in place in my state and any of the other border entrances. i'm told the drug enforcement agency owns and operates license plate readers at border patrol checkpoints. does cbp have access to that information? is there a way to ensure some kind of license plate reading capability be put in at all of the checkpoints so that we don't have frankly the point of the stolen vehicles in my state as a serious one and particularly as you get toward the southern part of the state but even an albuquerque a lot of cars get stolen and are never seen again

but the understanding is the wind up in mexico so what is being done on the license plate reader issue? >> senator, the drug enforcement administration at the department of justice and cbp are engaged in discussions. we've developed a joint project. i met yesterday as circumstances turnout mr. placido we discussed the matter and i believe we will have an arrangement of and running in the documentation of it in the very near future. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator bunning? >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'm going to go back to touch base so i can try to grasp how a former u.s. attorney for the southern district leges southern district of california wouldn't know federal law since your job

as the federal attorney, u.s. attorney would be to enforce the federal law in that area. you had ten household employees since 1993 as my understanding. how many of these employees to define or maintain a formal i-9 for verification of their legal status in the timeframe that is required by federal law? >> we do not have the certification of eligibility secured for each one of those employees on the form required by law, senator. >> so you didn't know there was such a law or you didn't comply?

>> i didn't know that it applied to household help -- >> i can tell you as an experienced person as a normal citizen of the united states halyard domestic employees, all i knew about it and i'm not a federal prosecutor. i'm not the federal u.s. attorney for the southern district of california and i knew from the irs that i had to file taxes from those people what they may do for a certain amount of money. so if you understand my difficulty, knowing your background that you wouldn't understand the requirement it is extremely difficult for this committee trying to get information and verify it that

the of difficulty understanding it also. when the finance committee asked how many household employees you had since 2006, you told them had three, when in fact there had been six. why didn't you review of the other household employees? >> senator, as i indicated these were the three students who were -- >> but you are paying them a salary. >> no, we were not -- >> but you're paying them by the hour. >> they were not working on a regular schedule. they worked to drive -- >> but you're paying taxes? >> yes, we were. >> okay. >> so you clearly treated all of those household workers as employees for tax purposes? >> we did, senator for purposes

of verifying eligibility to work in the united states because are not required to have the employer pay taxes or flout -- >> i'm going to back to the of ranking member. who advise you to tell the finance committee that they were independent contractors? was it someone connected to the obama administration who was helping you through the venting process or did you out of ignorance just not list them on an i-9? >> as i said, senator bombing, there was no intent to conceal the three college students. their names appeared on schedule at the tax returns furnished to this committee in fact it was the way in which their names came up with regard to the advice that we were received regarding the treatment of them

in the less active since as i indicated we received advice and counsel from a variety of sources but i am responsible for the decision that was made -- >> you made the distinction. >> i made that distinction and it hasn't been made at the time of hiring employment. >> before the recess appointed i'm assuming the administration asked whether you wanted to be a recess appointment. at that time, you knew you were not finished with our committee's venting process and you knew there were significant issues to be resolved. why did you agree to be vrieses appointed rather than let the committee process come to conclusion? >> senator line proud of having been appointed at the time cbp needed leadership. it is a major agency for the reasons -- >> we know that.

it's been a particularly in the week of december 25th attempt over detroit the importance of having leadership in place was made in the administration. i appreciated that and do not believe it was the wrong decision and i appreciate the committee have an input to nettie -- bac please answer my question to be did you agree to be real disappointed? >> i did not say that i would not be. it was not my decision -- >> were you asked by the administration whether you wanted to be recess' appointed? >> i was asked whether or not i would accept the appointment made and i said yes, sir. >> okay. my time is expired. >> thank you, senator. senator cantwell. >> thank you.

mr. bersin, thank you for your willingness to serve and coming for the specific northwest. the northern border issues are of great interest to us and the movement of goods and services and/or a big part of our economy making sure we have security and flow of commerce and individuals is very important. one of the issues that you helped us try to address was the relationship between customer border patrol agents and local law enforcement and particularly those living on the olympic peninsula area. i appreciate that. how do you think we keep the relationship going? what are some of the lessons you think we should learn from that and how we make sure local law enforcement stakeholders are part of our national security infrastructure? >> senator cantwell, think you for the comments and i also want to thank you for the assistance that your staff in washington and also people like nancy

provided in your home state to actually build those relationships and sustain the partnerships critical to the operations of customs and border protection particularly on the northern border where we do not have the number of agents that we have elsewhere around the country in terms of airports and seaports let alone the southwest border where we have almost 18,000 agents. so the multiplication of the presence in partnership with state and local and tribal authorities that your office is help build is a critical dimension to activities on the north and i think we have made products to the progress not only in terms of regular not reach and meetings joint lead of the community but the law enforcement exchanges such as in the interoperability of communications but i think what ought very promise for other partnerships run the country.

>> and do think the border patrol agents will lean more on law enforcement and the kind of communication and securities to the border because obviously this is a highly sensitive issue when people are miles and miles and miles away from the border and all of a sudden are stopped and pulled over bye someone that they don't even recognize as law enforcement into the. >> think as you recognize and we've implemented in places where dispatch systems are shared between local law enforcement and customs border protection specifically border protection patrol this kind of collaboration and going out together to the community to explain the role of the checkpoints to the community so that people understand why they are in place and also are sensitive to the complaints that people raise about them is an ongoing feature of the collaboration and one that we

have learned a lot from. >> and so you will keep taking that kind of communication back from the law enforcement and the community? >> absolutely. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. bersin, good to see you. i want to start by asking about the unmanned aerial systems being operated by customs border patrol office of air and marine and as you know, there are cbp has five per durham drones. i brought a nice little model of that so that everybody can see what they look like. but astonishing to me that the department of defense has 6,000 unmanned aerial vehicles in its inventory and yet customs and border protection is responsible for maintaining border security in the country we only have

five. as you know three of them operate out of arizona, two out of north dakota. and get texas has the longest common border with mexico has none. as you know i have written and i know governor perry has asked secretary napolitano to proceed with dispatch to correct the oversight and at this point we are still waiting for the faa to issue a certificate of authorization because they have been unable to deal with that on what i would consider to be a timely basis. can you tell me what the cbp has done once the certificate of authorization is issued? first let me ask have you done anything to encourage the faa to move on that quickly and then i would like for you to tell us

what the cbp has done to prepare for the issuance of the certificate as we can get a drone of like this in the sky as soon as possible over texas. >> senator cornyn, the uav under consideration by the faa has been a matter of constant increased by yes with regard to coa on west texas there's another the would cover actually the sixth uav the guardian maritime that would garth corpus but with regard to the land predator the west texas coa, it is my understanding the legal deadline for issuance and consideration of the faa is coming in a couple of weeks and we've been making regular inquiry. i have a meeting with faa administrator bad it next week in which we will i would trust hear good news because it is an

absolutely essential dimension of homeland security and will become so even more as we move into the future. the -- i think the other coa having to do with the guardian so-called maritime guardian predator is one that was filed recently and we would expect the faa in due course to accept that. secretary napolitano has given direction. i was present when she met with governor harry and she is committed to this as is cbp. >> mr. bersin, i appreciate your answer. you can understand given particularly senator bingaman talked-about of course the violence occurring in mexico and growing concern about the spillover effect in the united states why using the very best technology be have to provide security both perception and real security of the border is

an absolute imperative, and this is something that is very high on my priority list and very important to me and so i hope that this happens without any more undue delay. but we shouldn't stop there. i know that the sdi net has been dispatched, and workable and assessment is being made as to replace it. we are all waiting to here with the assessment is because we know the border is not secure. there's more than half a million people detained coming across the southern border last year. and who knows how many people actually come that are not detained and return to their country. and we know that with the drugs, the weapons, the people being brought almost across the border at will by the cartels and other organized criminal gangs that this is a problem that has to be dealt with with a concrete plan

which gets me to the budget. the administration requested an appropriation of 11.17 billion for 2011 which is 3% decrease and in 2011 it amounts to further decrease of 318 million. what is the plan to increase the number of bids on the ground border patrol fiscal infrastructure and technology so that the american people can be assured that the federal government is doing everything it possibly can to secure the border? >> senator cornyn's said in 2004 the border patrol is more than doubled in size. we now have a border patrol -- >> mr. bersin, i know that. that's a good but it's not good enough and that's what i want to know what is your plan going

forward? >> we have worked through recognizing the fiscal constraints that we face as a nation that we will not decrease the number of border patrol agents on the ground. in fact we will maintain the steady state notwithstanding the attrition that you see in an organization as large as that. with regard to the ports of entry, the cbpo will also be maintained at a level just below 21,000, officers. we will i believe be seeking to redress the 200 additional air and marine people that we need to maintain the states, so senator i take your point. i think that you would agree that we are much better resource than before. we are seeing the benefits of that. there is additional work to be

done and as we consolidate our efforts of what expect there will be further growth but together with the technology whether it is uav or adaptation of sdi net, we must in fact, the technology with the infrastructure with the boots on the ground. >> mr. bersin, let me say in conclusion i share your concern also about making sure hour authorized points of entry are properly resource to so that legitimate commerce and trade which benefits our nation as well as our trading partners, mexico to the south and to the north, that those be improved. but i would tell you the status quo in terms of staffing and deployment of technology when it comes to border security is not acceptable to me and i don't think it should be acceptable to the american people. we don't cut corners when it comes to the national security when it comes to funding the

department of defense. we do what it takes and the american people i know are committed to doing what it takes to make sure the nation is secure and i think the same thing applies to border security. the american people are terribly upset. they are scared, they are mad and they don't understand why we are not doing more to secure the border so i would suggest we need a plan from the department of homeland security, from customs and border protection about how to get it done and then we need a price tag and then the congress needs to deal with that as a responsible body because the american people simply are not going to be satisfied with a flat line budget and no more border patrol agents because of budgetary concerns. it's important from security is important. thank you respect thank you. i share your sense of urgency. >> senator wyden is next. >> thank you, senator campbell,

and welcome to mr. bersin. let me if i could turn to a different topic. and i come to this because i share on the finance subcommittee and trade subcommittee and this is especially important to our part of the world trade jobs davitamon trade in my home state. something like one out of six jobs depends on international trade. and if confirmed you would play an especially important role in the key feature of the whole policy arena and that is the enforcement of the duty orders and of course the agency cbp plays and a central role in a host of enforcement efforts that are especially important at this time. we are seeing illegal transshipment particularly by the chinese, falsified country of origin marking undervaluation

of goods that pay less duty, misclassification of goods, the list goes on and on as you know. and in effect the cumulative consequences of all of this are u.s. industries forking over millions of dollars to try to fight the costly trade disputes to keep from getting the consequences of illegal dumping and the harm the face as a result of the lack of enforcement. i do have concerns that this agency that is the front-line defense against unfair imports is not adequately enforcing the orders on the books. so let's just walk for a minute through the tools at your disposal and first let's start with what specific actions are you prepared to take at this point to make sure that the anti-dumping and countervailing

duty orders are enforced? >> senator waiting, with regards to the revamping if you will of cdp's mission on a trade in order to assure not only the members of congress but also the trade community that we take as equally important and as complementary the promotion of trade, the motion of american economic competitiveness as part of their security regime we need to look up anti-dumping countervailing duty issue you raise and see it in this in context as intellectual property rights protection and consumer product safety protection so we need to promote trade but we also need to enforce the trade law and i am aware of the perception that we have not used the full power of the agency as

an executive agent at the ports of entry to do that. so i have read with interest the draft on the of the fair trade reduction act of 2010 and think that several of the tools that are in there should be considered as being important measures that we can use as we ramp up our enforcement profile. i should say that we need to put this in the context of the overall review of the trade function that has been initiated cbp under my leadership to look at the resources, the processes and procedures that we use and to look at importantly the relationships we have with other federal agencies for whom we serve as executive aged including u.s. t.r., and on the unfair trade side of the house.

but the kind of tools that are in their need to be integrated into this review. the notion that we should have uniform procedures to look at the allegations made and to do it in a consistent way around the country to which the concept cbp ought to collect cash deposits from the importers suspected during the course of the investigation of anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders is another matter that obviously will be of great concern and consternation to the trade with proper outreach and proper application enforcement that could be an important tool. the notion that the department of commerce in homeland security through cbp should issue an annual report detailing allegations of violations in the field, actions that are taken investigated fully and in the results of tanned i think is an

idea that should be looked at seriously. the old salles foot if you don't manage it you can't and terms of regulatory activity and others as well. and last, we are looking in the entire review of the trade function at the number of resources in terms of personnel that we devote to trade in force and promotion. cbp is an agency of just under 58,000 employees just under 900 dedicated to the trade functions. i haven't been there long enough to know exactly how many more resources we need to devote to this but i am confident that we do need to build up the personnel the looked at this kind of investigation and penalty sanctioning. >> mr. chairman, my time is up. >> go ahead, senator.

>> thank you, mr. chairman. this is a quick point. clearly mr. bersin is talking about some of the ideas you and i have been discussing to try to step up enforcement, and i think the general direction we are talking about and highlighted some of the points is clearly the direction to go. you have american industries spending significant sums to defend themselves against unfair imports and then say to yourself how is it they have to monitor compliance with existing order particularly when they walk away and say that our compliance enforcement is a government job at the agency that you are talking about. mr. chairman, i am encouraged by the response we've got and i want to highlight again i know you had a longstanding interest on these kind of issues and i want to work very closely with you as we have been doing on the trade matters and i think you for your time. >> thank you, senator.

i have a few more questions back on the i-9s. i understand, mr. bersin, that when you were first contacted by our staff through the process you indicated that there are three employees that i guess in question you did provide documentation with respect to those three; is that correct? >> yes, sir. >> is also my understanding with respect to other employees that in addition to the three that you did not volunteer as this staff employees work for you but that issue arose during the vetting process when the staff asked questions about whether you get further in planet for employees. at that time you indicated when asked by the staff that he had additional employees in addition to those three; is that correct?

>> yes, senator. as i indicated to senator bunning, the six employees included the three that i discussed in the college students. >> is it correct to provide documentation for the first three? >> it is correct. >> is it also correct you didn't provide the committee and in substantive ways? >> when my wife and i met with committee staff in march we supplied information regarding the payment of taxes for people who were employed by us. we indicated that we had verified the eligibility and i don't recall that the staff followed up to ask us for the actual documentation of the college students eligibility to work in the united states. >> did you on your own provide documentation for the subsequent employees? that is those in addition to the first three? >> after the -- no search we did

not provide the california driver's license and social security numbers that we had. we could do that and i didn't think there was an issue about that. >> and just curious your basic position is it's not as important so long as to provide documentation and you did provide documentation for the first three but not for the other employees except it sounds -- i would like to clear this up it sounds like on a sporadic ad hoc basis. >> senator, i'm told we did. i don't recall having supplied the actual copies of the drivers' licenses and social security cards but they are available. there is no reason not to provide them. i don't believe the staff asked specifically for the documentation. we would be delighted to provide that. >> i'm surprised you didn't speak to -- sprick in fact the

questions went to employees employed after 2006. because i was concerned that the staff had the impression we were not being forthcoming, my wife flew out from california. we sat with your staff and we didn't limit it to 2006. we went back to the 20 years of employees we hired after getting married in 1991 and having a first child together in 1992 and we went through all of the employees that we hired without regard to the date and i must say i think we are so completely forthcoming during that meeting and we remain willing to demonstrate that there was never a case in which we failed to pay taxes for someone employed in our household or verified their eligibility to work in the united states. >> a question i have basically

is your dedication to commerce. it's clear you have a deep background with respect to the security issues and i understand that you are the border azar 2006, 2009. member of the california for an education, apparently chairman of the san diego county regional airport authority. there's a lot of security involved in those jobs and from five to six, secretary of education and in 2005 superintendent of public education and prior to that u.s. attorney for the southern district of california so i commend you for your public service. it is pretty apparent that your services to areas primarily.

it's education and it's also prosecution slash borders are security issues to law enforcement. education and law enforcement. i don't see anything here with respect to commerce and i am quite concerned frankly that you don't have a lot of dedication to congress in fact a listen to the opening statements and i didn't hear very much there with respect to congress. could you tell us more about what you're doing to force that side of it. >> senator, respectful you covered the part of public service that's two-thirds of my career. one-third law enforcement and one-third education but i spent 20 years as a corporate and commercial lawyer deeply involved in trade and commercial matters. i represented in terms of

intellectual property rights protection was a part of my caseload and i get more commercial cases by far than i did any other kind of case. my commitment to trade facilitation and the trade functions of cbp was demonstrated while i was the prosecutor when i worked to create and health have the congress pass the authorization for the center system which is a trusted traveler program intended to segment the traffic along the lines that i indicated in the opening statement for the purpose of sexually distinguishing between the unlawful traffic, traffic that could be expedited from traffic that needed to be inspected with regard to my work as secretary of international affairs and homeland security negative a jury much involved in looking at

the cdp trade functions and i've understood not only the committee concerned but reflected in your preparation and filing and posing of the senate bill 1631 and also the trade community concerns about cbp transparency, the commitment to increasing the resources it devotes to trade enforcement and trade promotion. all of this has been very much a matter of concern to me and a matter which i am committed. >> are you going to know whether you succeed or not? when you leave your job how will you know whether you succeed on the trade side? >> i think there are a number of metrics we can look at in terms of seizures of counterfeit goods. looking at mr. wyden's concern, the loving and of the collection of countervailing duties and

anti-dumping restrictions. there are a series of measures that will tell whether or not we are getting the results in the trade arena we need to have. >> what do you think the best measures are, two or three or four good measures? >> in terms of trade promotion i would -- >> also to stop the bad guys and the stuff that comes in. >> we need to see the amount of time for example that comes to the united states, the inspection time, the complaint by the trade that we are not moving the traffic as quickly as we can i think is one great concern i have heard on out to the trade organization's. the notion that we do not provide adequate notice to the trade changes we intend to make the rulings and revisions i think is another area in which we can get a free good read as to whether or not we have improved not only the substance

and the reality of the commitment to trade but also the perception not only the congress of the trade community. i think that we can look at the extent to which we have devoted resources to good effect in the area in terms of the number of petitions handled, the time it takes to handle petitions and time it takes to handle the drawbacks filed by the trade. i think there are a series of readily available measures along those lines we can look to assess the progress. >> what i would like you to do is submit to this committee six of the most important metrics you think are most important that you think will help us as a country determine whether or not we are making progress. >> i would be pleased to do that. >> than i am going to review these with you. maybe six months from now.

i would like the six most important metrics and the timetable during which we will review these metrics to see the degree to which you've made progress. now we want to tell you you will be commissioner a certain period of time. we want to work together. this is a two-way street so if you have areas you need help, let us know. we want to help but the main thing is getting the job done so you write that letter to us and we would like to see that letter by the end of this week and i but light -- we may responded said just another match record to that we also think makes most sense. i would appreciate that. what% of software do you think is pirated? just a rough guess. >> senator, i wouldn't answer to

guess what i do know that the degree is unacceptable and that the trade community is conscious of the problem in the same way that i could not give you a good answer to how many films are pirated and how many copies of counterfeit textiles are coming into the country or handbags. i would hesitate. i would say -- >> don't you did you should know and have an idea how much is pirated and coming to the united states is pirated? >> i think that we can look at what these teachers have been and project but i've learned in terms of the security feature and i see this in much the same way that being able to project what is not being captured or seized is a hazardous calculation and would want to be

in a much more informed position to be able to give you -- >> don't you think you ought to know what each of these areas -- shouldn't you have members of the fingertips like that? the scope of the problem is and how will customs is handling it? >> yes, sir. >> instead of the lateral generalities' immediate and specific. >> i do believe the data is better but in any event, having that baseline data still is not a sure god to the trees falling in the forest when no one is there to hear them. >> better than nothing, isn't it? >> educated guesses -- >> better than nothing. >> educated guesses are better than nothing but you need to take -- >> that's right, do the best you can, find out that number. would you be amazed if you learned that 43% of world

software is pirated? >> i would find that as unacceptable as figures far less than that. it's been at what% in china do you think is pirated? >> i know from my visits in the educational context of china that there is an enormous amount of pirated counterfeit goods on sale and on the sale elsewhere in the world. >> i'm talking about china right now. the software and piracy with the numbers of 94% in the year 2000 and 79% for the year 2009 surprise you? that's what they are. rush of 94% in 2000, russia, 200967%. a little better. about the same. 58%. the world is a little better, know it's worse, 6% worse, 37%

near 2,000 in 2009 as the software pirating. do you feel we have the ability to deal with software? you sound to me like a knot and bolts guy, not a software by. >> actually, senator, having worked in california on the understand the piracy of software and i understand the critical nature of software and intellectual property rights protection to the economy. i understand that deeply and i've been involved as a lawyer and also as a prosecutor where we work to stop the counterfeiting of goods coming over from mexico. i understand this issue and the importance of it very well. >> i must tell you a lot of visits come into my office and i am concerned that the degree of intensity with which they are

upset with products that are pirated astelin. >> i am familiar with those complaints and those concerns -- >> [inaudible] i am just telling you. so you know. you also know there's another border besides mexico. >> i know that very well, sir. i've been there often. >> where have you been? >> i've been to me and two weeks ago and senator cantwell indicated seattle. i've been to detroit, windsor, the holton sector up in new york state, vermont, and i would have gone to montana had a senior center been there to greet me. >> well you could have gone

anyway. >> i know montana from travels there but i meant in the official capacity. >> will you know we have a long border, 545 miles and we only have freeport's which commercial vehicles can pass which is a huge problem. the operational hours of some of them have been dramatically reduced. so what are your plans to refocus and get commerce moving across the borders? >> with respect -- with respect to the northern border as you know we have implemented the pilot program to expand the hours and we wanted to see whether or not in fact if we provided was extended service hours whether or not the traffic would require that we extend to read we are always willing to assets of that and i think our

record has been good in that respect that we're we conduct the analysis and where there is a demonstrated need and response by the community to make those hours permanent. if there is also an were areas and ports of entry we need to be willing to look at flexible use of technology that ensures a were security but also permits people who use the border regularly to register so that they can be given access at certain times of the day when we are not there with people on the ground. >> sprick i'm especially concerned about the intellectual

properties because it is rising. it's counterfeit medicine for example threatens the health of consumers. the authorization bill we hope to pass would give customers more resources to seize the infringing goods. but additional authority would you like to have to do your job? >> we appreciate the concern. i want to first see how far we can and the enforcement efforts we have initiated. there's been two major developments that i want to apply and then be in the position to talk about what additional authorities we may need. those two efforts are the intellectual property enforcement centers that immigration customs enforcement has established. we participate and the investigations at i.c.e. is doing with intellectual property violations or suspected

violation. that is a partnership that we need to assess how far we are hampered by lack of authority and what other obstacles there may be. the second major development is the development -- the opening up of the commercial targeting and analysis senator that really represents the first time in which we are trying to use the sophisticated databases and targeting rules, but we have proven so valuable in the security context and to do this in the trade context to look the same notion of risk management, risks segmentation and layered security in the area of trade in force and as we do in terms of protecting against the terrorism and transnational crime. >> what are you doing about concerns about safety of imported to place, children's

products? that is a huge problem. >> it is, senator, and two weeks ago, two and a half weeks ago i met with chairman tannin rahm at the consumer product safety council. we entered into a memorandum of the understanding and which members of the cpsc are targeted at the analysis senator. i had a call this week with i netz tannin bomb where we would convene a group of agencies for which customs and border protection serves as the executive agent so we can start to take an entire and more unified whole u.s. government approach to the issue is not only of consumer product safety but also intellectual property enforcement. >> what about the additional cost the importers have to bear

because compliance with trade law. doesn't that put additional burden on them? >> there is no question every time we impose a regulatory requirement there is a cost involved and i have heard the complaint chairman just articulated in my meetings with tree organizations which i presented the first week on the job. this week i was with the commercial operations advisory committee coac in philadelphia and heard the same complaint and basically, senator, i think that what we are talking about here is a reciprocal obligation of the reciprocal obligation is that if we impose a requirement that results in additional cost to the business that we provide the benefit of the bargain to the business. >> how do you do that? >> by seeing that there is an expedited movement of goods, prophecies and paperwork as well as the movement of containers and the maritime and aviation

context and movement of trucks across the land border. this has got to be a win-win situation in which business and government promote american economic competitiveness and economic prosperity. >> the legislation passed provides such benefits that is so that those who are doing a good job get a benefit of this whole process. >> dalia understand there are important dimensions in the bills that do that. so what safeguards do you put in place to ensure that cdp consults with this committee and other agencies before making significant decisions? >> i think a commitment to transparency, openness and notice is the whole market keystone of that approach. when i met with the committee in philadelphia this past tuesday i made that commitment to them. i believe it was well received.

we had a four reading in which the seven committees that had been established reported on their word. i understand the importance of consultation. i understand the importance of rebuilding the trust and confidence of the trade community as well as members of congress and the notion that we can have both security and prosperous trade together. we need not sacrifice one -- speed this committee doesn't like to be blindsided. so if something is coming up and you think that the congress should know about i would like a telephone call in advance. spec i want to read about something significant in the newspapers or my constituents. i want to hear it first from you

>> i am about rap to be cut to wrap up unless you have something to say. spec i appreciate the opportunity. i want to express again my concern at the impression that may have been conveyed to your staff in the course of the vetting process. for 20 years now i've been engaged in public service as you've noted as u.s. attorney as a member of the department of justice as a school superintendent, california secretary of education as a chairman of the airport authority and more recently dhs as assistant secretary special border representative. in each of those positions my reputation for truthfulness and directness indeed are sometimes believed to be default are what i prize most. i've been confirmed by four legislative bodies, five

legislative bodies and for different levels of government. i take my reputation for truthfulness and candor as the core. the first lesson my children durham is door word is your bond, and i want over time, senator, to have the opportunity to earn that trust and confidence on the substantive matters but also on the values that you articulate teddy roosevelt at the outset of this hearing. >> i appreciate that and i appreciate your answers questions. i still remained concerned. since 1853 that customs service has cut responsibility for patrolling the borders the agency retains authority to secure the borders from unlawful entry and persons and goods and i believe that your failure to complete and maintain the i-9s goes to the heart of your duty

as customs and part of the responsibility to secure the borders, to credibly enforce the law you must first follow the law. nevertheless you've been appointed as commissioner and your term will expire at the end of the next session in the meantime you have important duties to fulfill and i hope he will fulfill them very well and we look forward to working with you in the metrics we are going to work with to see what progress we can undertake between now and the end of next year. >> thank you, senator. >> thank you. the hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations]

.. administrator,

craig fugate testifying about federal disaster response effos. >> k. itv news and the league of women voters, commitment 2010, special congressional election debate. >> i am paula and thank you for joining us for tonight's debate for the candidates in the special election in the first congressional district. this election is entirely by mail and the balance has been set out forngre residents. 313,337 people are eligible to vote in this winner-take-all election and it is up to you th. voters to decide who will take over the seed held by neal

abercrombie. joining us are the three leading candidates in the race. we haveho republican charles dj, colleen hanbusa and democrat, ed case. our panel tonight consists of three veterans, reporters who have extensive experience covering public politics. you are also welcome to submit questions to her web sitens. tonight on line activities for the debate. >> we are holding a live wire discussion i on kitv.com.>> we' i am joined by politicalus analyst, neal miller as wellsio' the league of women voters. we have got a by bunch of people here helping out in right now we have people posing questions and you can look at what other people are posting as well. new is going to be answering those questions and we are going to pick a few of the best

asked, the questionsng t that you ask ando post them to the candidates leader in the a debate.o paula.date >> thank you laura. before we get our questions we want to give you a summary of bw tonight's rules in the format ge agreed upon by the league of br voters, kitv on thed the candidates.rmf in order to participate a candidate had to have received significant levels of publicd support an independent public opinion polls.n received substantial campaign contributions, received substantial votes in prior elections for the same or opion office. office from a wide variety of media outlets. bl posted in rules are this section of kitv.com along with the names of the other candidates who are running in thismp election..com during tonight's debate each o candidate will have one minute to respond to questions tonight' each candidate will have one minute to respond to questions. responses will be timed. candidates will receive a

15-second warning when time is running out. candidates will be allowed a 30-second rebuttal to each question not directly asked to them. if at any time a reporter, panelist or myself feel there's a need for a follow-up question, we'll ask that candidate for the follow-up and they'll have 30 seconds to respond. each candidate will be allowed 90 seconds at the end for closing statements. prior to tonight's debate, the candidates took part in a drawing to determine the initial order of questioning. up first tonight, is charles deju. and we've decided to forgo the opening statements for this debate. and instead i'll be asking the first question. and for this question only, each one of you will have one minute to respond. so mr. deju, we start. we'll begin with an issue that's often been forgotten with all the bickering in the campaign. hawaii's people are just struggling to get by. in a recent gallup/"u.s.a. today" poll, more than 90% of those surveyed say that the economy would be very important as they cast their votes for congress. family incomes have fallen, pensions have been gutted.

homes have been lost or at least lost in value. and at the same time the cost of living keeps going up. if elected, what are you going to do to help make the people of hawaii feel better? >> thank you, paula. and thank you very much kitv for tforng this debate and all of what i believe, and i willhi advocate for if i am fortunate to earn your support eshoo united states congressmen are three specific things. number one, we have to reduceted their marginal tax rate.ngress right now we need to put more money in the hands of the average family here inn hawaii. your government is taking moneyd ndd even worse taking too much money from you and spending on programs that do not work anden even worse and that the money they are taking they have no plans to pay back. number 2, we need to do is find more private-sector jobs, not more public-sector programs. the government right now in the united states congress isight spending hundreds of millions of

dollars to no effect and i support expanding our market in free trade. congress has mistakenly not pass free trade agreements that will helpr m hawaii reached a trade agreement with south korea.kore mahalo. >> i will left the same question of ms. hanbusa.sk t >> thank you to their viewers here this evening. the economy and jobs in particular have always been my mi concern. the reason why is because there isg. nothing but his families lo the job issue. we need to have people feel secure whyec and paula's questin touch upon what we need to doeo more than anything else. we need to build publiciont confidence. public confidence is really what is going to turn this economy bd around. to do that, let's look at what congress has been debating and what congress has donemy today.t the stimulus package has in fact given us a sense of stability.ms federal funding in hawaii has always been very critical, o because it really is one of our major economic engines. it hasas been the federal one

government and military fundingc in addition, we must start to look at how we can buttress tourism and buttress the construction industry all in als line with the creation of the new economy so that people will begin to feel good about where we are going and feel secure in their future. thank you. >> thank you.l and mr. case. >> good evening and aloha to our viewers. i agree with my colleague. t i'm the only candidate who has worked in the private sector and run aonprri business over the lt years.an that it'sdi been the world i hae lived in so i understand that world and there are three items we have to focus on here. big pitchere from a perspective, reasonable levels of taxation and regulation t mae business go. you cannot have excessive taxation and excessive regulation andna expect our businesses to survive and prosper if they are given the ability to do so. i second, federal funding and programs do need to be directed where appropriate and at annd

affordable level to help the industries we particularly focud on right here in hawaii and those would be tourism, our federal government and military and high-tech, a promising industry and third, small business first and foremost. this is a small business day. b ius served on the small business committee in my entire service. we have to make sure our busin government iss focusing on smal business.focusing o >> thank you very much while previewing now we begin with our panel's questions and start with darrell huff with a nk question colleen hanbusa. >> ms. hanbusa there is a section of your campaign web you want toys that bring back fiscal responsibility to washington that expressesto concern about the rising federai debt, but the same time i didn's see anything in there excepted proposals to spend more money. so what would you do i specifically, one specific proposal to make sure our children and grandchildren areil burdened with future government spending? re tt >> welcome i think first of all we and have to make a distinctin

between what is deficit and what is debt. the federal debt, i believe if you been following what is going going -- making going on in washington you know there's aloa bipartisan committee that has been established. we balanced budgets, even in the state and we have nohere's defir se. but we do all have debt, so we there is a concept that there is some level ofo debt that is of necessary. like each and every one of us,ns just like a mortgage but we need to establish that. in hawaii for example we have constitutionalbu ceilings that r set. we i believe this commission is tho first step in establishing what is that levelns a of debt, thats government can have, and we will havetep debt in some form or another, we will have a that'se what is that agreeable an acceptable level? and that is what i am very haveh an advocate of. the establishing of that debt ceiling and that we reduce, the spending to the point that we actually get to that that levelw

>> you have 30 seconds to respond mr. case. >> three particular issues we need to focus on and i have balanced budget in my private-sector work and ofgets course my family site, and i served on the budget committee and the u.s. congress and wouldd hope to serve there again.congss a balanced budget amendment tove our constitution which requires us to do the same thing in our government is we have to do with their families and their business.agn. uso b, d paygo meaning he'll alwaysw have to be budget neutral when you pass a bill. it cannot worsen the debt and ct caps fund. we have to bring spending under control. , wee is no other way. >> mr. hanbusa-- djou. >> i built my career as a member of the0 honolulu city council on fiscal responsibility and government accountability and right now the federal government amok.ning these deficits which we are going to hand off to her children is thecity most taxinge issue. irarn support and earmark and moratorium on earmarks to change

the culture of spending in congress and a balanced budget amendment for our constitution.e the federal government lives like every family does a numbero three we stop stopped launching new public-sector programs and get more private-sector jobs. >> we have a follow-up question from darrell. >> ms. hanbusa you didn't reall. answer my question. i asked for one specific place we can save money and i thinkn't you gave a quick, short answer.f >> we canor say that by doing wa street reform because that is causedqu us to do the bailouts d that is causing us to have the debt. ati believe that is the first place we have got to start because we have to do the financial reform package. >> we have kirby with a questio> for mr. case. >> your campaign a has focused n fiscal conservatism however you are an record as having voted for dozens of tax and fee hikes reviewer in congress.ord as are you promising one thing whe you actually deliver another?. >> first of all let's observe i am getting attackedwh fenrom boh opponents by many different issues so i'm feeling flattered

that they both are coming after me a little bit. i feel that there is somethingy to be concerned about, but on the question of taxes, i have not ever supported absolutely no tax hikes and i have not ever tasolutely supported no tax hikes.x have i have in my career voted several times for taxax reductions. when i was in congress that voted for somethingn m like awhw billion dollars with a tax reductions over time. s the particular attack you referred to us an accurate.onsr if you go back and study the attack, which was challenging the tax hike record that i had inyo congress on several issues, it is simply straight up wrong. sometimes you vote on a budget and a budget at $2 trillion worth is going to have some fee for example, an increase, some customs fees and some other fees. that is the most infinitesimal part of an entire budget.ther go you affect a vote on the budget and it is going to have some of that and a. l

>> mr. djou, a 32nd rebuttal. >> 10 years in elections office i have never voted for a tax increase.bu fil ily believe the government must live within its needs just asotd every family does and that isiel why i also believe if i am fortunate to earn your support to be an ex-congressman i will never forget that every single dollar the government spends comes from families like yours.p >> ms. hanbusa, 30 seconds. talken we about debt, the other creation of debt we had was the bush administration, ahu combinationsa of bush tax cuts,. which i did vote for some of them and then in addition the war, the war in iraq and afghanistan.andn when you put that combination together of both cuts plusou spending, you are going to have more debt.on b that is the kind ofot thing i believe the question was berected at ed and did in fact vote forli some of the bush taxe cuts. >> our next question is from s

dennyom and it is for mr. djou.q >> mr. djou, democrats are proposing financial reform, yet republicans are resisting.u. what reforms do you support?anse >> i think reform is extremely important.su>> ihink i have a business degree from the university ofs pennsylvani. i understand how a strong vibrant services industry is for our nation. we need to keep in mind two things. number one, we have to prevent systemic risk.se that is we haverves to make sure that no one asked, no one action can take down our entire t financial sector in number 2, we end too big to fail.d nu no one financial institution and one bank should ever get so largee that should they get into trouble it has to be bailedcialo at the american taxpayer.eha i believe congress is making some progress in this directiony i believe we need more bipartisan work in cooperation.e i t am happy the united states

senate earlier this week filed a bipartisan compromise to begin the early steps of t making real serious financial service reform and i look forward to entering the house after the senate finishes this were. >> we havean a dirty second rebuttal. >> "usa today" in fact, i was only candidate talking about financial reform. i believe the essence of financial reform has to be with getting a way that too big to fail concept. in addition tobe that one of the things that have now becomeconc. that we muste fact take care of the concept of derivatives, which have really caused this downfall, and we need to regulate that, so we need people to look at thewnfa financial reform package in terms of what the forces of the downturn has been and how we are going to address t that.hat >> 30 seconds mr. case.that >> this is the third debate in which he is not answer this particular question.rd we have had a financial servicee report for aad number of monthsh

and it has passed the house of a every republican. i asked charles in in the last s debate if he would oppose it the would oppose it and he didn'tdee answer that. it calls for number one cal liquidation of troubled companies. it calls for a consolidation of consumer protection activities on behalfderly l of the consumea calls for regulation of derivatives.nsum the republicans have opposed that and c i think charles does. well. >> thank you. darrell has a question actually for all the candidates, but beginningdoll with charles. >> one in times square last week and then atre christmastime, whn a man nearly brought down ant airliner. what would you do to make sure that americans at tim home are e from terrorism? >> i believe that there is really no question that americans must feel safe. tt however, i also believe that we have began to institute a better kind of i tntelligenceha systemd

our intelligence system must address the potential terrorists attacks. notwithstanding that, i have addr concern aboutndin what cost to americans that we do this. one of the reasons i say that is because i have always been someone who isam critical of the patriot act because i believen that no time did we sacrifice our civilt rights.t n however, we are in a situation now where the reason why these events have been averted is because we do have the proper types of controls in place and intend, if elected to congress, to continue along those lines. >> mr. case you have 30 seconds >> let's start with the basic premise and that is bad is the world beyond our borders are more safe and stable, our world willders be more safe and stablo we can pretend the only answer weo secure our borders and to secure ouran transportation. that is obviously a crucial part

of what we have to do. yes weou have to continue all measures within our country to provide internal security but we also have to be out there in the world making sure we are working with other countries in the world to take carentry of probm spots,g take care of issues wod beyond our borders. that is what we have to do to protect ourselves. >> mr. djou, 30 seconds. >> i keenly understand how a single terrorist attack could devastate our state's singletanw largest industry, tourism. i understand that we need toev make sure that we are in a fight against extremist islam.ke se in order to stop this we have ta succeed in iraq and afghanistan and here atga home, we have to e make sure we have a fully fundee department of homeland security. >> thank you verye much. now a question directed to mr. djou. >> you oppose earmarks in the federalhastio budget mr. djou ae said he would turn down money for hawaii to uphold your note

earmark policy.urn why would you hurt your d own state by turning down billions of dollars in federal tax money here to defend a position of mainland republicans? >> i believe that what is going on in the united states congress today is simply responsible. we are running budget deficits in excess of $1.6 trillion, but the largest ethical-- deficit bs a factorhe of three. i believe that an open,ti transparent budgeting process, where everything is conducted out in the open, where we don't have this a logrolling you scrah i'll scratch your back that has led to these massive problems ofre the lending budgea deficits and gigantic national prbt, that will serve hawaii better. the majority of our earmarks come from the department of budget.if you halfway between north america and asia,, ewart talking to thef senior officials and theyen will tell you hawaii will square o favorably in a system in which the entire budgetingfftmen procs

done fairly, transparentlyir insteade of done with backroom deals and political backscratching. that is whynspare support a morm ing.armarks as long as budget deficits exceed $1 trillion good for ahink it is wide. >> a 32ndt rebuttal. >> let's be clear from where they deficit occurred.be in the clinton administration we haddefi a surplus and the deficw occurred under the republican administration. as to earmarks, earmarks are necessarya pl component or good permits government to meet theru needs of people.s what we need is transparency. wh and state government wesary e something similar. where the hearing process so people know who is asking for it, for what purpose and howo much. it is so critical to continueasg programs like meals on wheels, east-west center,. these are earmarks and just make it transparent for the people. >> a rebuttal for mr. case.peop >> again with rleespect to chars that is an example of at's e

simplistic sound bite that has typified this campaign.plisc the problemso with earmarks is t earmarks per se because as a member of congress i do know my district better than anybody else and i believe it is thgitimate for me to a direct federal funding to specific for needs i know best in my district and that is a designation called ino earmark.now it is true they do need to be thre transparent. there is too to close a tie between campaign contributions andany earmarking but to simply tipe out earmarks altogether will hurt hawaii. a wide. >> or next question is from denby and it is for all thee coi -- candidates. >> mr. case we haveng been at wi withth afghanistan for nearly ne years and in iraq for sixeen ye. are these conflicts worth theye cost in human suffering and six financial cost and at what point dohe we say enough and walk awa, or do we? >> again i would go back to myor previous answer on the security question because we have to be

sure that the world beyond our b borders are secure andack to str if we are not sure of that, then we will be attacked again. had to go into we afghanistan to start with was because we had allowed thert situation to develop where al qaeda found shelter under the taliban. there is no reason whatsoever for us to expect that that wouldn't happen again if we it to happen. us so the answer is that our foreign policy always has to hap the number one goal, which is to protect americans within our borders and elsewhere in our world and to secure ourn world and we have to answer that question before we do in factd w withdraw from afghanistan. that is simply what we have to a do. that doesn't mean we don't sit there and try to frame their met withdrawal in a way that is fair and in a way that recognizes tha realitiest of both their project and the realities of the world.o i believe president obama is on the right track in iraq with a

phased withdrawal. i believe conditions on thegr ground should dictate and i do believe we should withdraw from iraq and i believe he is also correct on afghanistan. >> 30 seconds for mr. djou. >> i don't want to see a single american soldier serving in a combat zone risking their lives one day longer than absolutely necessary. in iraq and afghanistan it is must succeed in both of these areas. if we pull out too early what will happen is anothers september 11. the obama administration has got it right and i support their currentma re policies.gi both iraq as well as afghanistan.q awe >> 30 secondsll for mrs. hanbus >> your question about whether it is ever worth a life, that is difficult to answer because when isa. presided over the hawaii ml of den honor i can tell you it w difficult to say any words were with a life that we need tofe ensure. that whatever we are asking them to fight for that there is in an and in their thei

something positives that comes t out of it.heosite i believe we have to withdraw from iraq on schedule.th afghanistan holds a different problem but i believe the presidentob is correct on presi afghanistan. it is an effortnt to stabilizee country, to ensure that what we do is to let the people take control of their own destiny and controwhat future. that is something that would make the sacrifice somet worthwhile. >> i just have a quick follow-up to woull mr. case. what are the indices that tell us the things that you hope for and a wish for? you have been to these two countries t so. >> i've been to iraq twice in a afghanistan once. as a were trips i took member of congress to understand exactly what is happening in those regions, to talk with the troops and talk with the people on thegr ground. first and foremost, are they secure?reit so those of us that could attack us will not attack us again.agai second, can those countries function as's the countries in e international community?

do they have the institutions of government andou society to be able to function? s theoc reason that that isfunctin important is that? they don'tt have that, then they will ior quickly fall into a situation where they again allow terrorist activity to foster and come after us again. >> thank you very much. in our question from darrell is directed to ms. hanbusa. >> ms. hanbusa you claim to be reformer ready to take on special interest but in fact you are campaign is getting heavy support from unions especially t the publicting employees and yor legal clients and labor law in practice have included the teamsters, the longshoremen and i have tomen view you. you said you could get involved in the school furlough issue because she wantedsc to let the collective bargaining process run its course., how how can you reassure voters that he won't put the interests ofheo unions ahead of the general public? >> because as you know darrell one of the things that i also did do was the civil service reform which then cost many of my colleagues their positions in

te senate.s it is because i do understand i labor and i do understand the working men and women of women of this state who happen to be members of collective bargaining units as well as any working man or woman that i put their interests first above everyone else's. a furlough issue in the end, we negotiate it, that potential settlement and we are hoping thd government will implement it.ane there is a problem because the supreme court is told theproble legislature that we cannot interfere but what we canhe do , when they got closer we believe they are close we did appropriate for a sufficient amount of money for furloughs to thing of the past as long as the governor can make an, a agreement.o the governor still has the ultimate power of restricting the funds, so that is why it ise necessary to have thathe discussion, and i have always been ready to have that discussion on behalf of allto h working men and women and all parents in the state.avents

>> a 30-second rebuttal from r mr. kay's. >> the issue here is independence. who of us is independent enough to go up to congress and represent all of hawaii?ce.o not the unions, not the other institutional supporters and no? the far right in this country are very busy supporting charles with their money and their activities, but all of the people of the way.heir this is a key that distinguishes me from my opponent.distin i amis independent, have always beenne independent and i've been taking my hits for being independent but i felt in doing so i've also been able to represent any and all of the people all the time.time >> a 30-second rebuttalr. mr. djou. >> i built my entire career as a member of the honolulu city council standing up to the old boy network. at a clear commitment to reform our myeerding community.i' h indeed it is because i believe the status quo here in hawaii ae well as the united states congresses and working for people.

this is why i am sitting here running for united states congress because i believe we ttthe structure ofin our economy in the direction ofc the united states congress. >> thank you very much. our nexty question is for mu. mr. djou. >> mr. djou do you believe health care is a necessity that. should be protected by governmentt he or do youalth fet people who cannot afford health insurance are just out of luck?r >> of course health health cared essential and it is important. i believe the president has got the diagnosis correct. we do need some form of health care reform in our nation but i believe the prescription the united states congress wrote ref lastm month is a terrible plan for the american people. instead i tha advocate three cli reforms that shouldbl i get elected will advocate for. number one i believe a in medicl malpractice tort reform and i support the interstate sale of thalth insurance. 95% of all hawaiians get theirh health insurance from only two companies and finally and perhaps this is the most onl t

important but most complex, i believe health insurance should be owned by individuals, not by the employer. you get autoin insurance, lifeo insurance or your homeowners insurance, you shouldn't have to ask your boss who you get your health insurance from. >> thank you and a 30-second rebuttal from ms. hanbusa. >> i think the most importantri thing is they need to know our purpose provision of the law isw exempted under the federal legislation because people are confused about that. in addition to that, i believe the people need to have health care and the reason why iser ct when we look at our budget and our deficit, 70% of our gross domestic progress-- product is w related to health care. budget this is a matter of investing in controlling the cost in the future. think about or elderly whoelat depend on medicare.about this particular program will close the doughnut hole on prescription drugs. prept

>> well, withio respect to chars again, although i agree with him on some of the items that he says, his three points are notht going to make a hill of beans different to the 30 million plue americans who can't get health insurance even though they hil wanted. it is not going to make any of difference substantially to theh escalating cost of health insurance at 10% plus. . makenot going to different to the consolidationfh oflt power and the health insurance delivery system which is one of the problemss n here. you have to make a decision. d you have to come up with a solution.iv youth can't just say no thatcome solution doesn't work.n't jus solu is the alternative to cover people if you say this is in the fact a right? >> we have a follow-up. >> for mr. djou an impact that is my question specifically mr. djou. the question is about, are there people that need to be protected by the government?the ques what specific worlds to thegove federal government have for theh 30 million people who have no healthso care coverage in this

country?th peo >> clearly the government does have a reoleav in health care.c? we provide medicare and medicaid and indeed one of the problems with the current health care bill that just passed the united states congress is we areth car robbing b peter to pay paul. we are taking money from the medicare system to pay for a larger medicaid system. that is notau responsible.re st the forums i'm outlining would do far more to control costs,th spread the coverage of health insurance and do muche more to give health insurance to more americans than most more evolvet cost a trillion dollars and ins requireur raising taxes by $600 million in the middle of a recession. raing >> that is what you are not four but i am at wondering what you were actually four in this casei >> again what i'm advocating here and clearly stating c his number one i support medical malpractice tort reform. clear i support the interstate sale ot health insurance and number three i support individual re ownership of health insurance.ia these three reforms will do far more to lower our cost of health insurance and are nate-- natio,

spread coverage and of not break ree taxpayershe that. that is what wade need to have thatn care of here. >> anymore from's our panelists? darrell. >> so you are saying some people are out of luck and you are also saying that hawaii's health care actually be jumped. >> that is a fantastic question. let's look at the health caree bill. it is 2000 border pages long.bia out oft those 2400 pages however of the health care bill, only 5f pages actually deal with the h health care reform, the present of a majority the majority in cangress advocated, oat so whate the other 2350 pages? it is chock-full of favors andol incentives to congressman all over the nation,nd including hawaii.men all what everybody should ask one themselves is if this bill is sa good for hawaii, what is a white need to h be an incentive from ?

on the other hand, of course i support an exemption for hawaii but it also begs the question why h do we need to build the first place? >> we will go ha on to the next bi question in every of time we will get back to health care. >> be our next question is for r. case. >> mr. case you have now run for three of hawaii's for congressional seats and you have run for>> governor and in this campaign you haven't even ruled out in the future running for a u.s. senate seat. should voters question your a commitment to serve the first district and thent role t your political ambition might play in your decision-making if you did win this seat?, >> my ambition has been to serve the people of public office. i? have carried that ambition fr 30 years now, sinceas b i began0 u.s. congress on capitol hill in the 1970s. i don't believe that there is anything wrong with me saying that i want tore serve.ve i want to serve you.ith

i believe that i can serve you, and i believe that i cane. function in the office is that i havewa run for and the choice oe courses up i to the voters. o can the voters trust me with those jobs?ff up i now have seven years onoter capitol hill, and for four years as a u.s. hav congressman. believe it has prepared me for the job of began serving the first congressional and in that ihe believe there is no reason whatsoever under the circumstances to question myst commitment in serving the people of hawaii in congress. >> mr. djou for rebuttal. see what i would like all of you to understand, other three candidates sitting in front of you i am the only one who lives in our district. a here i am running for the seat because i believe this is wherey i can make a difference.because i've built my entire political career on fiscal accountability and government responsibility. i am running for the seed whether or not another seat and whoever may jump in

out in any politicalp race. i o am running for the seatticua because this is where i plead my entire record andpoli career can make the best difference to thee peopler of why he.f >> ms. hanbusa. >> i believe that people are going to decide the specific question and i ask that you look at the records, how will we have serve. i believe that the public services inoour honor and i hav chosen to run for this office because i believe that i can best serve the ter people of the state of why in the first congressional district because i have the skill sets that make me different from my opponents, ad that i have a proven record of e being an effective leader and an effective legislator. >> thank you very much. at this point we are going to take a brief break and let me comeve back glory returns withk. some of the questions our viewers havee that up and asking livewire discussion onr liv kitv.com. stay with us. we will be back in twoe minutes.

>> welcome back to tonight's debate for the seat in hawaii's first congressional district. we continue with some of theni questions submitted to theght'tc candidates through kitv.com from you our viewers. laurie joins us from the web senator. >> we have been answering a lot of questions here, and it is just a long list of questions from folks for all theng a lot candidates, very interesting stuff.t o we can get to everything but we have a few questions for each of the candidates. we to are going to start with charles djou and this this is a viewer named paula.ng fm mr. djou recently at a council meeting we noted twice he left the a room before the votes were taken to increase the gasoline tax and property tax. how can you say that you have never voted for a tax i increasy paula wants to no, do you always leave the room when they are important tax votes?know >> thank you paller five-- paula

fornt that question. i've never voted for a tax increase. the two votes you are talking about here are the procedural votes called second reading. all votes h have to go for three readings on the city council floor. i am very happy and veryal vot t to stand on my record of consistently opposing tax increases because they believe the government must be o responsible and handle its bel budget in the same fashion that every single family does and that is that we shouldn't bedg wavinget i the magic wand to increase taxes and asked for more revenues anytime we demanded or needed. instead, when the governmentme d needs to tighten its belt it needs to find means of reducingt expenses, not increasing taxes. >> we have a 30-second rebuttale from mr. case. >> i believe charles missed fo r fotes, and i don't care whether his second or third reading.ld g that is not responsible. in terms of the budget, has ever called charles you have re

abstained on every budget you of have had a chance to vote on either in the state legislature or the city council andar the ct just say all the time. in you have got to come up with solutions and vote for something someou time. >> ms. hanbusa. >> add that i agree on this, and that is to vote no is very easy thing to do. the most difficult challenge that any legislator a has, andst let's not forget thatif is whatr are running for, the ultimateett legislative job to be a member of congress. is the skill to be able toress i convince your colleagues that t your position is correct. colag if you both know and you are 8-1 or something along those lines it is a wasted vote.o that is not serving the peoplen of any district or in a t constituency. if you feel strongly in aif you particular area then by all means at the gate for it in convince others to go your way.a >> our next question, laura what what you have?nd >> we want to make sure we have an education question in there..

a college student who asked how are you going to make education your first priority? o for instance what specifically is your view on no child left behind? >> mymake specific view on no cd left behind is in general it is a good love. a law that tries to escalate tha standards across our country and tries to provide the funding which, to meet those standards. provi that was the deal when they pass no child left behind and i still deal.tiat is a good we are falling behind when you compare education commitment to the rest ofs this the world.d the problems with no child left behind our number one, funding. you cannot have an unfundedd mandate.e, either reduce the mandate or increase the funding, what are the other, not both. mdate allow more flexibility to local, ommunities to go ahead andnumbr adjust the specific concernsocal that they have with education in their community. we have many examples of that right here in hawaii and e i exe served on the education committee as well as the budget

rimmittee and the small business committee when i was in congresa earlier. we build-- go with no childll lt behind and in hawaii because of our ethnic diversity simply the fact we have different islands we need more flexibility to make ithild work. >> a 30-second rebuttal from it ms. hanbusa. >> when you are part of the state and you see the impact of no child left behind and how how to fix the community schools you know it doesn't work in the maii reason why is because no child left behind in its present form success on a school b basis. it doesn't take into account special needs children and s account secondnt languages or people who have chosen to be in hawaii and-- schools. w the new proposal coming from the obama administration has merit in that it is going to measureig success by the student and after all the student is who we are investing in and they should be the measure of success. >> mr. djou, 30 seconds. >> i believe my most important

job in my life is not professore is being a good husband and a is good dead.cilman, i am the debt of three wonderful children and i understand the importance of a good education. i believe no child left behind is good in concept that has been grosslydr underfunded. i believe education should be principally directed at the local level in the federalead government can play a good supporting role.ral gove the current proposals put forward by the obama administration and race to the top orrting good or puzzles andi would like to see them pushed go aggressively.d we need dramatic educationd reform in our community. >> laura we have another question. >> we have as question for colleen hanbusa of this comesion from joy. ms. hanbusa wall street is out of control. what type of regulation would you seek to regulate wall street and larger banks and investment companies? >> i believe with the goldmanet sachs situation and we began toh understand what too big to fail

really madan and the concept of hedge funds have taken on a totally new meaning to me.the it c mean to hedge your bets.otn it goes to the concept of derivatives which i believe has beenbe the real source of the failure on wall street. the fact that theseves, compani so large, were able to basically hedge their bets against therge, various types of investments that we were making. i also believe that one of the major concerns is a sub-prime mortgage that we saw. there is nothing to me as terrible as the deal with aothig person's home and when they were committed to do whatever they want with sub-prime mortgages, they were affecting-- the ty average person's major investment, your home, for theva future.'s mor when we talk about reform, we have got to make sure they are not allowed to play with herfo major investment and more importantly than that they are not allowed to go amok withn th derivatives as they have in the past. >> we have a 30-second rebuttala from mr. djou.

>> it is>> not the government servng to regulate specific products. nee what we need to do is make surem the american taxpayer never again has to bail out the financial institutions. and we make sure sur we take caf something called systemic risk, that the americanfina taxpayer t always the backstop of bailing out these major wall street ri t firms. if i get elected to the united states congress, i will makeck-n sure these financial services firms use money it is their money, not yours.ne >> mr. case? >> i think charles i' answer>> l reflects al misunderstanding oh what the situation ischarle nationally. of course they there are marketg need to be regulated.pp the problem was those markets ofre not regulated to start with. markets they developed high levels of systemic risk and they were not seriously and substantially regulated and because of that tooth much risk in the failed. too regulation is a question of

balance. too much regulation chills industry. consolidation of regulatory functions and rick gaylor functions in a regulated market is what we have to do. >> thank you for the questionsho from our viewers. thank you laura. that we will go back to her reporter question to mr. withith darrell who has a question for mr. djou. >> mr. djou all three candidates have said they can support continued funding for native hawaiians and also some form of new self-governance for native hawaiians for something like the akaka bill. how do you reassure the people of hawaiians who areu non-hawaiians and some of themy who are comfortable with this, that doing a special treatment for her wines is also good for everyone else? speci >> darrell i believe as long as the federal government is providing federal recognition americans, it should have some recognition for nativd hawaiians. for it is why i do not support the current version but do support a

previous version of the akaka bill.he cur any and a format that aerobic mission of future governing entity should only come about after negotiations between identity and the hawaiian statev government. en it can be fair for all people here in hawaii.tw what i don't like is for theeena congress granting by fiat allat the parameters of the powers and jurisdictions for future native hawaiian governing entity is without involving negotiations for this day. i also want to take a step further and say believe it is time we have public hearings i in here in hawaii on this instead of having all of we these hearings in washington d.c.. 30-second rebuttal from ms. hanbusa. >> myarin i position on the akal is well-known among everyone, but the one thing that i'd like to point out is to look at my record. from the time i chaired hawaiiai affairs we have had major challenges beginning with life barrett and all the otherwe

challenges to the rights of native alliance. what i believe is all the different hearings that i took during a period of time.es t the first a white hearings, hearings on dole versus barrett. that is what we need.e people need to feel comfortable and we need to give them that level of comfort.o >> mr. kay's. >> i think the best answer to this specific question asked is can all of us, hawaiian or non-hawaiian imagine hawaii, the native hawaiian people andthe culture at its very core, at our core and i can't. therefore one has to ask the question how do we ensure that that culture survives and prospers? ca the there are many threats from mane different corridors to the survival and prosperity of the cultural over time.rviv a federal recognition provides a framework in which we can assure that thatniti culture survives.e >> our next question is from gop

and it is for ms. hanbusa. >> senator hinojosa has endorsed her campaign.he is helping you raise money for it. how can you ensure voters that you will merely be his puppet? can you give us at least two examples, specific examples where you differ with him onexas important issues?,ic >> i will tell you that theis reason why senator inouye has given me his support is because of the fact that he has told people publicly one, my word is good and two, he knows that he can rely on me whenever i say yes or no. he doesn't expect me to the agree with h him because if yous know anything about my history, you know that i am not anyone'su rubberstamp. one area i believe iw disagreedm with the senator on what's onith anwr and that is because i o believe so strongly in the environment.

i believe that we need to dohe alternative energy and we can meet that particular demand. the other area where i believe the senator and our have some differences is in the recent development of 50 year plus leases on the military basis. i the reason i find that ton bein. somewhat problematic is because we are keeping people in place for 50 years, and i am not sure that that is the best way to meet the housing crisis for the military in hawaii.sing >> we have a 30-second rebuttal for mr. case. >> the issue again is independence. want independence. we iue want independence of tho, independent of action and we do not wantia our elected officialn directed by any one person, any onet party, anyone special-interest. we want our elected officials to be responsible and accountable topart the fall of the people ty represent. be key. the

i have gotten along very well the delegation in my prior service and i will get along fine with them again.el weeg will work together on issus that have concern for why but ir will maintain my independence. >> mr. djou? o >> the key is getting balance. if you look around the country the most effective delegation for aound o particular state han those congressional delegationsr with a bipartisan composition but as well they are republicans and democrats that may disagree on major issues of the day in front of washington d.c.. when it comes with a local issue affecting just one state, when you have members from bothne parties that can effectively advocate on mem behalf of that state, i intend to do that as mo role model and campaign chair did when she served in the u.s. congress 25 years ago. >> denby has her next question and it is for mr. case. >> continuing on this theme and you have kind of answer this but i want to ask you more about it. when you campaigned against senator akaka you anchored

center-- senator inouye. sew realistic is it to be cooperative and be working together again with completeli peace ofsto mind when he had so angrily spoken out against you? for example at senator hanbusa campaign opening? >> i would answer by pointing tu the actual experience that i have with members of of the to colors-- delegation. asembers a member of the delega, there was neveron once a time wn anybody criticize me for not being a member of the team. there were several instances in which we work together on very complicated and very difficult d issues. o pearl harbor and naval shipyard, the allocation of the federal ofograms to whitey, the agreement among the delegation about where we were going to focus and not focus and one that year i was a candidate for the u.s. senate and in that yearar o we had nort

problems working together. i would also go back to the history ofsena hawaii in the ck that it is not unusual for people that have disagreed politically to work together as members of the delegation. or example, when i was working with-- when i was working in washington d.c., they were rivals for the u.s. senate but they got the job done. and senator inouye also got the job done although they had rivalries as well.do here and i'm sure we will be just fine. >> very quickly, what i want you and everybody av listening to tl debate to understand about myself and my record is that my advocacy will always be first and foremost, last hawaii, hawaii, hawaii. web site toii choose between my political party in my political ambition and the people of hawaii it is no to choice. it will be for the people of is hawaii and the belief n mightha.

record on city council showsord that. that although i'm the onlyy republican, i'm proud of my hol record and have passed more pieces of legislation than any member of theul council over te last several years.il >> and ms. hanbusa. >> i want to be very clear that i'm honored with the fact that both senator akaka and senatorit inouye has given me their endorsement and the reason why they have is because they know e that i can work as a team.e reas they also know w my word is goo. i believe the statementhe made s ed is a great testament to theo. both of them, because they are statesmen. they are people who put their personal feelings below that of hawaii. hawaii has always come first to them. they the have the fight in theio soarts so when you hear what ed says, that is more a, reflection on them than it is on anyone else.flecti >> thank you to o her candidatee that includes tonightates. questioning. conclu our candidates now will have 90 seconds each for closing statements and we begin with mr. djou.tiidatav csi

>> thank you. i want to thanked judy for hosting this and thank you each and everyone of you for taking time out of your evening to listen to us. you ladies and gentlemen, what you should know is in this particular campaign as you select your next representative for the united statesld congres neither of them live in thisma district and consequently y neither of them are amongstou td 316,000 voters who received their ballot this past weekend. when you make your decision i have to keep consider, you canos go with either one of my opponents in this particular debate who want tode gor and jon the m congressional majority and continue along the path of the op quo of spend, spend andcontie spend some more or invite you tt take a look at my campaign, built on three basic principles. more that we need private-sector jobs, not more public-sector programs. m second, i believe congress isor taking our nation in the wrongps direction. we are spending too much money. worse than that we are spending

money on programs that do not work and even worse than that all the money we are spending we have no plans to pay it back. my finally, it is my core belief py that i believe the nextand fi beliefssman should be committed to holding down your taxes and letting you keep more of yourve money in your congressman who wants to spend all of youres money. i want you to know on behalf of myself and my y family, i am fortunate and humbled to earnof your support i will never forget every single dollar the government spends comes fromer families like yours. this is why i'm running and why i humbly am asking for yourment vote. mahalo subagent aloha. >> ms. hanbusa a closing statement. >> i would like to thank kitv news and the league of women voters for hosting this event. you have heard a lot of this evening about what we would do elected.u'veea i believe the proof is in what have done and i have said that you look at my record.donea i also asked if you look at wha is going on around us. at it seems across the nation, the

anger and our government has never been greater. critical issues, seem to give rise to more argument, and jus another excuse to bring someone else. it is too easy to be negative and too easy to say no.too what we e need to do is turn awy rom anger and look to the future.o here in hawaii, look at what we have. we have an airline airlines it just receives-- considered one of the finest in the nations int the community thatec is one of e most livable in america. we have a health careon program that can be a template to else.ica, it tells us that we all know hawaii am special. doe t we have special things to share with the rest of the nation. we have values, we have confidences and we have hope. for this election, your vote can be one for hope. your vote can be one for trust,v trust in ourselves and trust in future. to get us there however hawaii needs leaders who have ourth values.

please join me in that effort. cast your vote for the vote for the future. i respectfully ask you for yourt vote.ctfullas mahalo. >> thank you ms. hanbusa and wek will last hear from mr. case.u. >> charles, choline, tv viewers, mahalo for joining us in on this mother's day weekend let me spend-- send a special aloha, my wife suzanne-- and remember to say thank you to your mom this sunday. this election is about change. isll of course it is about changing a u.s. congressman and incredibly important a job. you must ask yourself who can do that job.redi two days after may 22. i believe i can. but that is not why do you should electdays me to the u.s. congress. elis election is about far more change than that. we need to change the way we a govern in thisut country. there is simply too much yelling and screaming going on in

washington d.c. and not enough problem-solving. shth respect to my opponentseamg there part of the problem, not part of the solution. parteed toth identify, work on, put together and implement consensus solutions that oluti k for all americans and that is going to take a different way of thinking about government and in is going toha take people thatf have the independence and the political philosophy to reach out and putnt those items together. that isnden a exactly what we n. finally of course we need to change the political culture of hawaii and only my election wili substantially accomplish that. i ask for your vote, www.ed case.com. mahalo. >> thank you to the candidates for being with us and thank youk to our viewers are watching and for participating in our life og discussion. a our coverage continues later on sctv news with a wrap up a reaction. ap-up,w, thank you so much, goo. night, aloha.

>> pennsylvania governor ed rendell and los angeles mayor anthony beard be a caruso were on capitol hill testifying in favor of the national infrastructure bank as a way to finance public works projects. his ways and means subcommittee on the issue is two and a half hours. ..

will tell the need for investment in our infrastructure supporting rhodes waste water drinking water energy and