let me start with the patent issue. so by a vote of 4-1, a bipartisan majority of the commission ordered google to stop seeking to exclude competitors using standard and essential patents that motorola, which google later purchase, at first promise but then refused to license unfair and reasonable terms. these essential patents and others like them are the cornerstone of the system of interoperability standards that ensure that wireless internet devices and mobile phones and talk to one another. it's something all of us use our daily lives and we've come to take for granted. over half of american consumers own and use one of these devices, including iphone, android phones and xbox. today's action by the commission ensures that competition continues to work for the benefit of american consumers in these important markets. now, years ago motorola promised to license its patents essential

to these interoperability standards, called standards of central patents, on fair and reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms. those are called fran terms. to any interested manufacture. other companies took motorola at its word. over many years relying on this promise, they invested billions and probably tens of billions of dollars in developing and bringing products to consumers using these patents. rather than offering a license or the license it promise, motorola been changed the rules of the game. the company sought injunctions and exclusion orders, to prevent these devices from coming into the country against products using their patents. after google purchased motorola, it inherited this litigation and continued the same practices. googles unfair conduct threatened to block consumers

access to critical electronic devices, including laptops, smartphones and gaming systems, or it could have increased the cost of these products by requiring manufacturers to pay higher licensing fees which they would've been passed on to consumers. here's an example of just one product at issue in the case. it's an ipad. i happen to have an old one. they have a new one. here are a number of other devices. x. boxes, government issued research in motion smart phones that are all, that are all under, under threat if this practice had been allowed to continue and grow. google's settlement with the commission requires google to abandon its claim for injunctive relief on any of its standard essential patents with a friend commitment. and offer a license on fran terms to any company that wants

to license these patents in the future. today's landmark and force an action will become we hope a template for resolution of sep licensing disputes across many industries and builds on more than 15 years of work bipartisan work at the federal trade commission from patent reports to workshops to enforcement actions like this one aimed at protecting the integrity of the patent system, and even more important, protecting american consumers. today's action makes clear that the commitments to make patents available on reasonable terms matters, and that companies cannot make these commitments when it suits them, that is, to the patent include any standard and then behave opportunistically later once the standard is in place. and those relying on it are vulnerable to extortion. today's commission action will also relieve companies of some of the costly and inefficient burden of hoarding patents for clearly defensive purposes,

savings that we hope it can be invested in job creating research and development. before we turn to the commission's investigation of google's search and search advertising practices, let me just say a few words about the commissions section five authority, which was the statutory basis for our challenge to googles unfair conduct related to standard essential patents. when congress created this agency in 1914, 99 years ago, it didn't have the commission with a unique combination of broad jurisdiction and limited remedies. our section five authority reaches beyond the antitrust laws to prohibit unfair methods of competition. it's sort of like a the number of row the antitrust law but is it -- as a counterbalance, congress -- we can impose fines to we don't put malefactors in jail. just as important, in cases like this one, section five violations that are also not violations of antitrust laws are not the bases, not a basis for

subsequent follow-on private lawsuits for treble damages in federal court. any society that many of us i believe is over the cages, the judicial use of section five represents a sensible and a very practical way for the commission to bring problematic conduct to a halt. now, in the second part of today's action, google has also committed to stopping the most troubling of its business practices related to internet search and into search advertising. google will stop misappropriating or scraping the content of its rivals or use of its own specialized search results. google will also drop contractual restrictions that impair the ability of small businesses particularly to advertisement on competing search advertising platforms. google has made legally enforceable and binding commitments to resolve the commission's concerns. these commitments have reporting

requirements that will allow the commission to vigorously monitor and enforce compliance if necessary. let me talk in a little more detail about some of this conduct. the commission investigated allegations that google misappropriated without consent or compensation for content of its rivals websites to improve its own product, and then pass this content off to consumers as if it were its own. for example, google allegedly scraped the user generated reviews of local restaurants displayed on yelp and lead consumers to believe that these were its own. when some of these websites complaint to google about the practice, google allegedly, and i say allegedly to threaten to remove them entirely from google search results. now, congress greater our commission almost 100 years ago to stop unfair business practices. and i won't say to characterize google's behavior except to say that if the allegations, to say that if the allegations

described, that is if the allegations are accurate, they describe conduct that is clearly problematic and potentially harmful to competition because it undermines incentives to innovate. that is, why would you create a new site for restaurant reviews if someone else can take them and appropriate them as if they were their own? going forward, google will allow websites the ability to opt out of appearing in its vertical properties like google local or product shopping, without being penalized or demoted in its general search results on google.com. that is its organic search. this arrangement assures that the internet remains vibrant and that remains competitive. the commission also investigated whether googles unfairly restricted the ability of small businesses to use tools to manage their advertising campaigns simultaneously on google and other competing

advertising platforms. for example, being. this practice is known as multi-homing. our investigation suggested that while most large advertisers who are not affected by google's contractual restrictions prefer to multi-home. multi-homing by small advertising and small businesses affected by the google restrictions was much less common. some commissioners were concerned by the tendency of google's restrictions to raise the cost to small business, and google has simply committed to drop the restrictions on multi-homing. we think that will create a more competitive environment. many of google's critics, including many of its competitors, one of the commission to go further in this investigation and regulate the intricacies of googles search engine algorithms. the commission exhaustively investigated allegations that google unfairly manipulated its search engine results to harm its competitors. a practice that i think most of us referred to as search of

bias. and today, the commission has voted to close this investigation unanimously. it can always, of course reopen any investigation if they believe that a company come in this case, google, crosses the line. with respect to our investigation, although some evidence suggested that google was trying to eliminate competition, google's primary reason for changing the look and feel of its search results to highlight its own products was to improve the user experience. similarly, changes to google's algorithm that can be effective -- the effect of promoting certain competing websites had connection, a plausible connection, with improving google search results, especially when competitors often try to game google's algorithm in ways that benefit of those firms but not consumers looking for the best search results. i remember an article from "the new york times" maybe a year ago about jcpenney paying companies

to do precisely this. not company on the value of jcpenney advertisements ranked higher or lower. tellingly, google's search engine rivals engaged in many of the same product design choices that google did, suggesting that this practice can benefit consumers. now, while not everything that who did -- google did was beneficial on balance, on balance, we didn't believe that the evidence supported an fec challenge to this aspect of google's business under american law. as chief justice earl warren wrote more than 50 years ago, and asked the federal courts have consistently ruled sense, the focus of our law is on protecting competition, not competitors. now, google is unquestionably one of america's great companies, innovative in fields from its core search engines to

ventures as drivers cars. with today's action by the ftc, google can refocus on its business and its products, but with a clear understanding that it, too, must do so while competing fairly. now, some may believe the commission should have done more in this case. perhaps because they are locked in hand-to-hand combat with google around the world, or perhaps a mistaken belief that in criticizing as will influence the outcome in other jurisdictions. some may believe that we should have done less. i imagine google is one that believes that. but for our part at this very wonderful agency, we really do follow the facts where the lead, apply our statute hastily, and do it with unique circumstances of each case. we do it with appropriate vigor and we do it with appropriate restraint. today's bipartisan commission action brings to an end the commission's investigations of

google in a fashion calculated to bring maximum relief to american consumers in a timely way. it is good for consumers. it is good for competition. it is good for innovation, and it is the right thing to do. and with that, with rich, pete, and howard will be glad to take any questions you have. and chuck, you can come up, too, come on a. so you have all of our bureaus here. thank you. wait one second and we will take questions. please identify yourself. do we have folks calling in as well? okay, let's start with questions from the rim. go ahead. >> [inaudible]

>> well, i would say this. we talked to the europeans are often. i actually spoke to dg competition at this point it with great, great respect for the work they are doing. and i think they're making progress in their negotiations with google. but, you know, we apply our own laws faithfully, and we try to resolve disputes in a timely manner. i mean, nobody's deserves an up or down vote from the commission. everybody deserves a timely resolution. this investigation has gone on for 19 months, i believe. we had the evidence we needed to we have multiple commission meetings, and we decided to take

the relief that we did because we thought it was good for competition and consumers. and it's time for everyone to move on here. i have great confidence that the europeans will faithfully apply their laws as well. there is some coordination on process i guess, to get back to your point, peter, but we apply the american law in the ftc act. they apply european law. [inaudible] >> hi, jeff. >> i just want to ask you why you sought the consent decree on the sep's but not on the scraping of the multi-homes. [inaudible] >> well, i think it's important to point out that we do have a consent, we do have a consistent standard and essential patents. every case is different in the

form of resolution here, on apis and scraping, give consumers greater relief faster than they otherwise would have gotten. and as you pointed out, it's coupled with in order in an important part of the case. i would also point out we didn't have a complaint. there was no complaint. there was no basis for an order. there is precedence for doing this. from time to time we have. there's a pillsbury case in 2002. and then on the consumer protection side, from time to time companies have made changes to business practices, we effectuate close and. and remember, you know, these are enforceable commitments. when you make a representation that, to the public, and to the commission, that you will do certain things or refrain from doing certain things, if you stop, if you can do it on your commitment, and i have no reason to think that google will honor

their commitment, i think it will, it's enforceable. it's a deceptive act of practice. [inaudible] >> look, again, each case is different. the form of resolution is different. i think that, i think this is fairly -- this is relating to unique circumstances of the investigation. but, you know, as a general matter, we usually, as a general matter it's true, we do orders and we generally like them. you'll see that in commissioner statements as well. anyone want to add anything? go ahead. >> steve friese, political. let's talk about the enforceability of the google agreement. because you mentioned you don't impose fines and you can't put people in jail. so not looking over the shoulder of google to see what is in

their algorithm. if a company thinks have been demoted because they're not allowed -- how would you bring -- >> if you look at the commitment letter, it's enforceable. you know, are monitoring requirements. that are monitoring requirements within their commitments to us. [inaudible] >> no, no, no. i mean, they will make sure they honor their commitments on scraping, right? not scraping competitors data. [inaudible] >> correct. but on search, it's a unanimous 5-0 vote to close the search investigation. and the reason is, it doesn't violate the american antitrust laws. it's not a violation under the ftc act. and so yes, we can reopen it if

circumstances change, and, of course, we would. but the answer is, you know, you have to at some point, you have to at some point resolve your investigations. and even though a lot of people would like us to bring a big search a bias case, the facts weren't there under the law that we applied. >> i'm saying how would you enforce the so-called voluntary agreement if there's no way to check if they are demoting people are not? >> because a voluntary agreement -- maybe i should make this clear. a voluntary agreement doesn't relate to the overall search bias issue. the overall search bias issue we have resolve. but if you're scraping content of rifles -- [inaudible] >> we will know that because, first of all, those rivals know how to come to the ftc. you'd be surprised how many of them did. and second of all, there under monitoring obligations and we will vigorously monitor. >> how? i understand the part about the scraping.

what i'm saying, part of this agreement is that if you opt out of being scraped, you are not penalized in the search algorithm. >> we will know. let me assure you, if you, let me assure you if there are complaints, if there are complaints that someone opted out and they're being penalized in violation of the law, they will come back and tell us. we will be able to do that. it's a good question. it's a complicated answer. yes, sir. >> i'm with the "l.a. times." >> hi, jim. >> what are the penalties? [inaudible] what dollar figure, what are the penalties that will apply to them? >> well, if you violate an order, that is $16,000 per violation. and violation can be defined in a way that multiplies that $16,000 very, very, very quick

quickly. you know, and we have also, in a privacy case, put them under order and sanctioned them for violating the order. but i honestly think, you know, with companies like google, they want to honor the commitment. if they don't honor their commitment, they entangle themselves with rivals, competitors and law enforcement agencies for violating those commitments. unicom any great american company doesn't want to be under the microscope. so it is to some extent, it is -- so from our perspective, there's the possibility of fines and there's a possibility of further enforcement actions. anything else? they are unusually silent. generally they are constantly correcting me and -- yes?

>> and the with bloomberg. >> yes, sir. >> why wasn't this resolution market tested? why was a very public comment period? >> there will be a public comment period for the standard and essential patents. there absolutely will be. we always do that. it's a 30 or 60 day coming period. 30 day comment period. on the resolution with respect to scraping and apis, which is probably what you mean, because there wasn't a complaint. you know, we didn't have a complaint so there's no basis for a traditional order. everyone knows -- and by the way, everyone who has concerns about scraping and apis, you know, knows precisely what is in this agreement, recognizes that it's enforceable. there may be some folks who have -- there may be some folks who are complainants that, to the

ftc or two, you know, reporters in this room, time to time, particularly a couple weeks ago, it seemed like sort of an antitrust spin zone, who of other things that they would like to say or other points they want to make. but everyone understands that the api restrictions are being dropped into be no return to what we believe to be the problem at scraping. yes, sir. >> i'm with the "washington post." so most of the complaints you hear from consumer groups and other members of the industry have to do with search bias. i'm just guessing a fair number of those groups will say today, well, by unanimously closing what they perceive to be the heart of the case that got this one, they're going to express concern am quite sure that google will feel emboldened. you said you found some evidence of search manipulation, but it

wasn't enough to merit an action by the commission. i'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on whether there's a danger that a company that wasn't investigated a long period of time, with the allegations were taken seriously. that there's a danger that company will feel like they're off the hook, they can continue to push the line, is that -- >> i don't feel like -- good question, but i don't think they feel like they're off. again, from our perspective, look, anyone who is in the business of being the chairman of the antitrust enforcement agency, you know, would like to bring the big case. that's something you want to try to do. but more important than that is that they fully execute the law. we found unanimously that there wasn't -- that they hadn't -- that they hadn't engaged in the

legal monopolization and have now violated the ftc act, actually. and so i don't think -- look, i do actually believe that companies, you know, companies like google recognize that, unicom you don't want to get in trouble again from an agency that knows your company really well. and so, you know, my sense is -- it's an interesting question. we will have to wait and see, but obviously we have them under order for what we think is a very important part of the case, the standard and essential patents. and again, they made legally enforceable commitments on scraping and on apis. and, of course, if they change their practices and cross the line, the commission can always come back and reopen an investigation. that's what we do. we hope not to have to.

[inaudible] i think we work those things out between ourselves and the justice. i don't believe that's a serious -- i do believe that the that's -- that those people who have raised those issues really believe that to be a serious possibility. it won't be. and by the way, i believe that bill is being sworn in today as the head of the antitrust division. he will be a terrific head of the antitrust division and were delighted to start working with him. yes, ma'am. i had a question on the sep case. you all are investigating sep's. but your statement seems to imply that you think that the ftc is for their agency to investigate those because of its section five authority. do you think that's a fair

assessment? >> no. i think the justice department is terrific at investigating these issues, because there really a wonderful agency and the antitrust division is very, very competent. if you look at supreme court decisions over the last 20 years, i think 16 out of 17 have been decided for the defendants. i think part of that is they're very concerned about private treble damage litigation. and we have unique statute to which we get what's known as chevron deference to stop unfair methods of competition. and it is conceivable going forward that this will be the more flexible statute and this will a statute that allows us to stop anticompetitive conduct as we are supposed to do. no, no, no. , i think the justice department is exceedingly competent at doing these types of investigations. we have a great working relationship with them. questions from the phone?

[inaudible] spent just to check, you said you found some evidence of search manipulation. can you go into more detail on that? >> i think i would say read the statement of the commissioners and read the analysis to any public comment that was drafted by the staff to it is very, very good, and, and as for particular items or particular pieces of data, that remains confidential, but it is the evidence that the commission took a long time to carefully weigh before it made its decision. >> okay, thank you. >> stomach yes, i was wondering how this investigation was

affected by the fast changes that are happening in the search market. google changes their algorithms about 500 times a year. i mean, i guess they may be doing one thing one week and something different the next week. was that a factor in trying to, in this investigation in closing this search bias? >> i would say it was a factor in the sense that we recognize it's a very dynamic industry. and you want to be careful before you apply sanctions. so we carefully weighed the evidence and determined where we wanted to take relief and where we did not. does anybody want to add anything? pete, come on up and add something. >> hello. one thing we did do is we had a chief technologist very involved in this investigation. very helpful in helping us figure out exactly what was

going on in the market. as john said, we were very aware of the market was changing quickly but the overall rules and the overall loss we apply our the same in the industry. so it didn't really have an impact in that sense. >> let me also say, i'm glad you mentioned, because we were fortunate to have ed felten was back teaching as our first chief technology. his work is invaluable on privacy issues. and on technology issues like this one. i'll take a few more questions. when you say the phone, you point to the ceiling. it's confusing. [inaudible] >> i was just wondering about the number of complaints that you received. you said you received quite a few. can you give us a number? >> now i don't think again, especially given the number. >> i don't know what it would be if we could. it's many.

>> that remains confidential unless it's in one of the commissioners statements. it was such just one or two people wandering in off the street. >> it's quite true that a people's history is the result of how synthesizing the work of a great many other historians. what had happened in the 1960s with the counterculture was that coming in, a whole new generation of young historians have come up. and they were in essence we evaluating all aspects of our past. >> martin duberman on the life of historian and activist howard zinn. saturday night at 10 eastern on after words o on c-span2. look for more booktv online, like is on facebook. >> it's a busy day today for members of congress. the house meets at 10 eastern to consider a bill regarding hurricane sandy relief funding.

you can see that live on c-span at 10 eastern. and at 1 p.m. eastern, centers will join house members for a joint meeting of congress. >> coming up on c-span2, we will have live coverage at 1030 the am eastern of nancy pelosi's news conference. before that, some of yesterday's mock swearing-in ceremony. new and returning senators met with vice president biden in the old senate chamber. we will show you as much of this as we can until our live event in an hour. >> part of yesterday's opening of the 113th congress was a mock swearing-in ceremony for new and reelected senators. the official swearing-in was on the senate floor your the mock ceremony with vice president joe biden was later in the old senate chamber. we will show you as much of this as we can until our live event

at 10:30 a.m. eastern. >> please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> congratulations, senator. [inaudible conversations]

>> your gracious for letting them go first. right here. elaine knows what she's doing. look at that. would you please raise your right -- right there, okay. please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> good seeing you, buddy.

>> cannot bring -- >> yes, bring the whole family and, of course. how are you? good to see you. how are you? i remember. what a good looking bunch. how are you? nice to see you. >> gather around, come on up towards the podium, both sides. >> grandkids, take care of your grandfather, okay? your most important job.

how old are you? you are getting old. remember, no -- [inaudible] >> i will, i will tell her hi. congratulations. they want to have you stand right there. >> stand on this one? >> you were standing right there. i guess you are holding the bible. raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god?

>> i do. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> the country is lucky to have you back. >> my daughter, my granddaughter. >> how are you? nice to see you. sure, how are you? [inaudible] >> nice to see you. hey, how are you? welcome. spent and my brother-in-law, bob. >> hey, bob, good to see you.

>> could you guys a step back just a little bit of that way? >> can we get everybody? congratulations everybody. >> thank you. >> [inaudible conversations]

>> i don't know this next guy over here. ben, good to see you. are you kidding me? >> senator, come forward just a little bit. >> please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> great to have you back, senator.

>> your dad used to, ma over and see me when he was about used td see me when he was about your age. hey, how are you? >> good. >> this is the vice president of the united states. >> how old are you, 17? >> no, i'm 11 spent what is your name? >> griffin. >> come on, let's get a picture. here we go. >> right next to the vice president.

>> thank you very much. >> thank you so much. [inaudible conversations] >> i remember, too. that's what i want another one. >> i will give you the bible. your daughter will raise her right hand, please. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god?

>> i do. >> congratulations. >> nice to see you again. >> mom, take care of her, will you? all right. >> good to see you, man. will you hold the bible? hey, how are you? good to see you. how are you? welcome back. bob, would you raise your right hand? do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and

allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> nice to see you, man. thank you. thank you very, very much. appreciate it. house with a baseball team doing? i remember. i remember. you guys had a doubleheader. come back. >> is rosier? she is not? -- is rose here? >> you guys looked beautiful. what's your name?

how old are you, 15? okay. [inaudible] >> okay. well, i'll tell you what -- >> the photo first? >> please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> congratulations. glad you are back. >> this is my niece. >> i, what is your name? [inaudible] >> she's got a smile that lights up the room. high, how are you? good to see you.

hey, man, good to see you. good to see you guys. >> move in a little bit closer. >> all right, here we go. >> do we need to get some people in front? >> are ready? >> nice to see you guys. good seeing you, pal. [inaudible conversations] >> hey, ben. stand right there, okay? please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely,

without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> my whole family is coming. spent this is my granddaughter. >> how old are you? [inaudible] >> are you brothers? i just didn't know the relationship. >> what a beautiful smile. what's your name? hey, zach, how are you, buddy? good to see you. you come next to me.

hey, john, how are you doing? >> thank you. >> [inaudible conversations] >> nice to see you, thank you. ben, congratulations. hey, bernie. >> it's her birthday. >> happy birthday. happy birthday. all right, will you please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you

take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> happy birthday, happy birthday. sang in there, will you? -- hang in there, will you? >> please tell your wife i said hello. >> i will. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> of course you do.

[inaudible conversations] hey, charlie, good to see you. how are you? hey, ben, how are you? i, how are you? >> this is my daughter. >> she has a smile that lights up the room. where's the secret service? how are you? come on, mark, get right here.

>> thank you. >> thank you for taking that. >> [inaudible conversations] >> [inaudible conversations]

>> do you remember me? >> oh, i remember you. >> senator, will you please raise your right hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> [inaudible conversations] >> thank you so much. >> all right, guys. these are six of our seven children.

>> holy mackerel. how are you? hey, ben, how are you? hey, michael, how are you? how are you? great to see you. did you have a really big fence around the house with machine guns? >> we had a lot of things. >> thank you. >> let me tell you, one tough lady. i love you.

>> [inaudible conversations] >> hello. >> hey, great to see you. i'll have you on this spot, and you're on the other side. butcher left on on the bible and raise your right hand. >> all right, do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do.

>> i am so happy you are back. congratulations. good to see you. >> doing very well. >> i know you are. >> this is my dad. >> great to see you. >> hi, susan. how are you. have you come on over here. dad, you get near the site. >> great, everyone look right at. no, please. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> we're going to have you go over that way. >> thank you, man.

>> hello, good to see you. >> this is my life. >> [inaudible conversations] >> i'm sure she will say the same thing. >> no, no, no. >> i'm joking, i'm joking. >> put your left hand on the bible and raise your right hand, okay? do you solemnly swear that you

will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> congratulations, bob. is anybody else your? >> one more. todd. >> hey, todd, how are you doing? great to see you. >> thank you. >> thank you. [inaudible conversations]

>> hey, bobby, how are you? great to see you. >> congratulations. it's been a busy time for you. >> stand there, put your left hand -- slip of the tongue. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god?

>> i do. >> congratulations, man. >> my daughter. >> how are you? >> high. >> how are you? you've got a smile that lights up the whole chamber. hey, mom, how are you? i'm joe biden. >> she likes of cheney better she tells me. [laughter] >> by the way, there's a baseball field called cheney part. i've been there. becky, how are you? hello. >> by the way, good work. >> good to see you.

>> mom? mom? >> she always says joe. >> come on back a mom. take a chance, ruin your reputation. >> this could hurt you back home. >> kathy, we can't see you right now. >> perfect. >> everyone look right up here.

>> would you take a picture of this, quickly? [laughter] >> now i've got evidence. now i've got evidence. [laughter] >> i'm 90 years old. >> tell you what, 20 years from now when i show my teacher picture, you have to come and sign it. god love you. >> [inaudible conversations] >> i agree. >> good to see you guys. >> nice to meet you, mr. vice

president. >> nice to be with you, take care. >> sandra. >> hello, sandra. okay, senator, you're going to stand right there. butcher left and on and raise your right hand. [inaudible conversations] >> senator, do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear the true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god?

>> vice president, i do. .. [inaudible conversations]

do you solemnly swear that he will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which i am about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. [inaudible conversations] where is henry? >> this is henry in the this is sofia. >> hey, how are you doing, man? come on, let's do this.

ready? okay. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic; that you bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> look over here. >> ready, go. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] put your left hand on the bible and raise your right hand. [inaudible conversations] >> do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic; that you bear true faith and allegiance to the same -- that you take

this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; that you will leave faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you got? -- you god? >> i do. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

are you ready if? do you solemnly swear that will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic; that you bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] do you solemnly swear to support

and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic; that you bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that he will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? [inaudible conversations] other than my mother, the finest lady ever known. [inaudible conversations]

all right. everybody asked why i moved from scranton. i lived three blocks from casey and knew only one of us was going to make it out of greenwich. i had to get out of town and find another venue. [laughter] good to see you guys. i've got to show you --

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] anybody else want to be sworn in as a senator [inaudible

conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] do you solemnly swear that he will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic; that you bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god?

>> i do. [inaudible conversations] this is my mother. >> hey, mom. [inaudible conversations] the way i would do the picture is with mom and the metal. mom hold the bible. we will do a picture like this. okay? >> you stay right there, mom.

millen doubled when, how are you -- melinda baldwin. sarah baldwin, how are you? good to see you. come over here to this site. what is your name? [inaudible conversations] okay. give us a headsup.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> why don't you bring that right up here.

[inaudible conversations] >> [inaudible [inaudible conversations] do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic; that you bear true faith and allegiance to the scene; the you take this

obligation freely, without any mental reservation speech fault and that he will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> thank you. appreciate it.

[inaudible conversations] put your left hand on the bible, please do you solemnly swear that your support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic; that you bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that to take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or or purpose of evasion; that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

there's joey. what does he do? >> keys and lawyer. i'm not kidding. >> [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> how are you? good to see you. >> left hand on the bible, right hand. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? [inaudible conversations]

there's mothers and then there's something else and something else and then there's mothers. [laughter] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] this is our one-year-old. >> hey handsome, who argue? are you 14? >> no, four.

>> would you hold this right here are you ready? put your hand up. do you solemnly swear that he will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic; that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? [inaudible conversations]

>> thank you. [laughter] [inaudible conversations] how are you, good to see you.

>> stand right there so they can see your face and put your left hand on the bible and raise your right hand. if you solemnly swear that he will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? [inaudible conversations] congratulations.

[inaudible conversations] >> okay. ready? >> thank you so much. congratulations. best wishes.

[inaudible conversations] >> how are you? >> can you say hello. >> are you 15? four and a half, almost five. all right. put your left hand on the bible to be ready, here we go. do you solemnly swear that he will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign and domestic, that you

bear true faith and allegiance to the same and you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you god? >> i do. >> congratulations. [inaudible conversations] >> i am a democrat, i know. but it's okay. [laughter] >> this is my mother. >> where do you live? [inaudible conversations] that's wonderful. we are going to put you right next to me over here.

[inaudible conversations]

how are you? joe biden, how are you. what's your name? good to see you. how are you? just like that.

>> [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> we are going to leave this now to go to nancy pelosi who is giving her weekly briefing. this is live coverage on c-span2. >> -- the 34th consecutive month of private sector job creation. on the floor today we will have the college coach. a pretty exciting.

the reelection of president barack obama made offical as a vote to cast on the floor today. that's really quite a historic event. so pleased that our new members will be here to bear witness to that treat several weeks ago i came before you bringing our 49 new members together, and we saw the beautiful diversity in every possible way. gender, geography, philosophy in every possible way, ethnicity of course. and now they are members of congress with constituents, and they will have a representative voting -- have a vote on the floor today for the electoral. the vote has been taken. but it was there who made the

vote. yesterday on the floor represented several issues that i think we can work together on and extend a hand of friendship to the republicans to say let's work together for job creation, for good paying jobs here in america, build our infrastructure, address our energy challenges, make it an american so american families can make it in america. talk about the safety of the american people that we want to -- again, we must work together in a bipartisan way and with the president calls a national conversation that congress' role in that in terms of protecting our children and their schools and their homes and neighborhoods and communities across the country. we talked about clean campaigns, building confidence in the electoral process. all of this, building confidence that we can create jobs, building confidence that we can keep our people say, building confidence that our campaigns are clean and that we can move obstacles of participation to

increase stability, increase the role of money. i hope we can work together to do that. and i was very pleased to see the reaction of the congress, at least on one side of the idle, for comprehensive immigration reform. i would tie that to the new members that they come here as problem solvers. they don't come here as partisan. they come here as representatives, independent representatives of their district. their job description and their job title or one in the same, representative. how they do that, honoring their conscience, the constitution and the constituents is how they make their decisions about their vote. and they are really -- this group, this 49 members, they are personal manifestations of the american dream and their own lives and in their parents'

lives of crossing the threshold into being a part of the american dream. and that phrase has two parts, the dream a part of it and the american part of it, so it's not just about economics, certainly it is important, but it's about who we are as a country, promoting our values, keeping the world at peace, and expecting the judgment of the american people about how they make their personal decisions in their life, respecting their creativity, honoring our country's founders commitments to the future in every way. we have our responsibility to honor those commitments now. so it is again pretty exciting time i think the election of the 49 new members represents a change in the congress. i think this is 25 or 35.

it's a big number of new people and reflecting back when i was knew that most people come here to see how we can work together first and foremost how we can find our common ground how can find the common ground when we don't find a common ground but to strive for that and as i said yesterday, a high year better ground for the american people. >> the reason we were calling this earlier is because the vote on the floor on a sandy. of course we are disappointed the package that was passed in the senate wasn't taken up by the majority of the republican leadership earlier in the previous congress suggested ended and now they are saying we are going to take it up by sustention today just one sixth of the package and hopefully that will go through today and

then in a couple of weeks we can vote further but as one who has experienced natural disasters in the district is important that the confidence people have in the public response to their personal plight would be upheld, that confidence to be upheld. i am also disappointed of course that the last congress didn't pass the violence against women act since we are talking about what the didn't do. i would be pleased to take any questions you have now. yes, sir. >> with a concern to u.s. to others that the president may have lost leverage in the upcoming -- >> i think most of our members -- we are never unanimous, but we do have a consensus with most of our members that after the

president has leverage on the next hurdle that we face that we have to get over this hurdle, and while there have been some ideas offered that the republicans wanted the rest of that, the fact the needed that strong democratic vote in the house to pass this bill was necessary to get those kind of objections out of the bill. so no, i think by and large we don't want to beat up against the wall the last minute of the last day, but the fact is by and large i think members understand why it was important not to go over the cliff. >> [inaudible] >> i think in speaking to all of your wife made my view on that subject very clear. i would do it in a second.

>> sometimes i think the administration hears you more clearly when you say it publicly >> they believe the debt ceiling increase should be presented and say no we are not going to negotiate it all? >> i don't think democrats are saying we don't have spending cuts as the basis of your question. we have only reached over a trillion dollars in cuts in the budget control act. so we all know how we proceed has to be in three parts, revenue to reduce the deficit, growth to bring money into the treasury and cuts and establishing a were priorities in a way that does not harm our future growth for example the cuts in education and investments and innovation which i think are a false economy because they do reduce the

possibility for growth rather than increase it. so i don't hear -- none of us is saying we are not going to talk about spending cuts. >> typically they are indicating now that they still want larger than any ever debt limit increase. >> i think that is a complete manifestation of the philosophy that is at work on the republican side. if you do not believe in the public role, if you do not heed the call of president washington that a political party shouldn't be at war with our own government, then you would disagree with what the republicans are doing. every day if you see the ryan budget that they deemed passed yesterday, passed on the floor yesterday, it practically directs that all of the things

the public role plays a part in clean air, clean water, public safety, public education, public transportation, public housing, public health, medicaid, social security. so if you think there should be more spending than reaching the debt limit, if you do that a couple of times, then pretty soon you have no public investment in the future. so i think that it's a very, very bad idea. in fighting that there has to be some maturity that has to sit in here about the fact that by and large much -- some of the debt that has been incurred by congress much of it in the bush years for the prescription drug bill that gave away the pharmaceuticals industry tax cuts for the very wealthy that did not produce jobs and growth in revenue to the treasury. so, they have created in part creating this problem they are

saying we are not paying our bills. well that's not right, and i think that is inappropriate conversation for us to have. this is an issue we are as a society come as a country, as an economy and the rest coming and i think it's really important to the american people to have a clear understanding of what is at stake and some of the buzz words the republicans put out. of course everybody thinks there should be spending cuts coming and we have all subscribe to that. we should subject every dollar whether it's domestic or defense to the harsh scrutiny as to whether the taxpayer is getting his or her dollars worth. >> the second tonsure of funding may not pass saying there are no concerns and the funds in the $33 billion may not be going directly are you concerned?

>> well i am concerned about what ever passes here passes in the united states senate and that is why in the interest of confidence-building comfort to those affected by loss of life and loss of jobs and community character of their community it would have been important to pass that bill. why did that have to wait until after the bill which was of course delayed, so i think there was a mistake. but they did say to the members of the region if they agree to a bifurcation they would take up the 27 billion it so that some of their members could look decent and vote for assistance to people in need of public assistance to say in natural disaster assistance and the others that didn't want to go to the 33, well, they just need a fewer number of republicans and

the democrats would carry the day for them. i don't think that they should take the deal. they thought they should, and here we are with $9 billion today. hopefully that will pass. so i would hope that whatever minor concerns they have about this, that or the other thing in the bill, the major initiative of being there for the american people and time of natural disaster as we have been with katrina, the midwest, california, all of these places that we should be there for them. in fact this is the largest delay on any natural disaster assistance since last year. hurricane irene affected a large part of the northeast as well. the same region although broader swaths of the east coast of the

country. i hope that the end of the day enough republicans would understand what our responsibility is to honor the social contract that we have. >> this has to be the last because we have a vote right now. >> -- the members of the house, and then later presented another. i guess a few of them were not there yet. >> is that what they did? >> does that to present an accurate historical record? >> it is an academic record of who the women in congress are. it's freezing cold and the members had been waiting a long time for everyone to arrive and they had to get back into the building to greet constituents and family members to go to the floor. it wasn't like we had the rest of the day to stand there. but it was an accurate reflection of who the 61 members of the democratic women members of congress are coming and not

only were the women but they reflected beautiful diversity of the country. women from every community as well as every religious faith. so we were pretty excited about it. thank you for asking about it. we enjoyed seeing it. we got a lot of response back from the country and 1i left is when they set can the women in congress hear people cheering across the country? thank you, all, very much. >> earlier today the presidential inaugural committee announced that supreme court chief justice john roberts will administer the oath of office to president obama's swearing-in ceremony. justice sotomayor will administer the oath of office

for president joe biden. and right now the u.s. house is working on a $9.7 billion bill that provides money for flood insurance programs aimed at helping those affected by hurricane sandy. that is underway now in the house and you can see that on c-span. if they pass the measure the senate is expected to approve the measure after the gavel in today. live coverage of the senate at 12:30 p.m.. a senator's plan to meet with house members at 1 p.m. eastern for a joint session to count the electoral votes for the president and vice president. follow the house life now on c-span and the senate at all :30 eastern on c-span2. earlier today on the employment numbers for december were released with the jobless rate remaining at 7.8%. employers added 155,000 jobs for the month. despite negotiations over the fiscal cliff.

>> roger williams, while he was a member of the clergy, was also incredibly trained and learned in a civil law and actually worked for sir coke in the british parliament in the chamber. and we see a lot of his idea of civil wall and of church and state. it is the famous persecution. this is where we see roger williams talking about the idea of liberty of conscience and the freedom of religion. he is very much showing at this point he is different and why his thinking is different and we will be different from massachusetts and the other colonies to the north. he was creating a land where people could come and worship as

they chose, and this of course didn't sit well with england or with massachusetts. by enacted british parliament all the copies of this book were set to be burned. luckily not all of them work. this copy was not and we were able to show this copy today. >> more from the rhode island state capital as book tv, american history tv and c-span local content vehicles look behind the scenes at the history and literary life of providence. saturday life on c-span book tv and sunday at five on american history tv on c-span3. if it's quite true that a people's history is the result of how synthesizing the work of a great many other historians. what had happened in the 1960's with the counterculture is a whole new generation of

historians had come up and they were in essence reevaluating all aspects of the past. and again, as was mentioned a moment ago, both of the house and the senate are expected to pass legislation today aimed to help the victims of hurricane sandy. late last year a senate housing subcommittee held a hearing on the impact of the hurricane superstore had on transportation and housing. this is one hour and ten minutes >> good morning. welcome, everyone, to today's hearing discussing the challenges our regions public

transit and housing face on super storm sandy. we started the day with a hearing on the loss of our ambassador in libya. and those challenges have of course getting the opening ceremony for senator inouye lying in state and now the devastation the northeast region has. it's been a tough day but we appreciate the witnesses being here to help us shed some light and hopefully some commitment by our colleagues to meeting our challenges. as you all know, sandy is the force in the region and particularly new jersey and new york, and the result is damage on the massive unprecedented scale. unprecedented, but unfortunately this was our second hurricane in two years and we expect extreme weather like this to become more common for the region. because we need to prepare for the next storm, it is not enough

for us to spend our time today simply discussing how we restore our housing and transit infrastructure to the vulnerable pre-storm condition. my view is to determine what actions we must take in order to build back the region in a way that makes us less vulnerable and future storms. the term we use in washington to describe this is mitigation. i don't think that word makes it clear enough the critical task we are pursuing. this is about rebuilding in a smarter and stronger way. we should learn from the important lessons in the gulf after hurricane katrina. transit agencies lost buses in the storm and when the transit agency's start speaking with fema replacing the buses, fema said they couldn't buy new buses. the had to buy a used losses of roughly the same age to replace those buses. so these agencies were put in the position of scouring the

country trying to find someone who would sell them old bosses but with mitigation funding, we can pay for a new bus to replace the old one. and the same principle applies to the rail transit. it was badly flooded, and this act of service after weeks after the storm. should we put that station back together with the same exact former devotee to flooding or should we rebuilt in a way that would prevent such an extensive flood damage in the future? of course we should be built to protect against future storms. it seems it is not only common sense, but for my friends who are fiscal hawks, the reality is it is far more fiscally irresponsible to ultimately ensure that we don't have repetitive loss. that we don't have economic consequences, and we don't have human consequences as a result

of just simply going back to that which was. with a smart investment, we can prevent hundreds of millions of future damages to the transit system. to understand the importance of rebuilding in a way that hardens our infrastructure and makes us more resilient, let me begin by laying out some facts about the damage to the region. based on preliminary estimates, and i underscore that, over 300,000 homes in new jersey alone were damaged. over 20,000 homes were destroyed or made uninhabitable during and we feel the final numbers will be hired to read the preliminary damage estimate provided by my state alone is at $36.9 billion in damage. i've lived in new jersey my whole life, and i have never, ever seen that type of devastation we have now. i'd like to tell you the story of just one of the many of the homeowners that lost so much. gerry lynch works as a realtor that live in ocean port for ten years in a modest bungalow

cottage. when the word of the storm came, she evacuated in her car with as many positions as she could. her house was destroyed by water rising to 4 feet and it isn't clear if it will be totally torn down or repaired and put on to higher stultz and she doesn't know if she will have the money to do that. she says practically the only house is in her neighborhood that survived were the ones that were built on high your stultz, which is exactly why we need resiliency in our rebuilding. so now she is living in fema housing until the end of december. she doesn't know where she will be after that. she says that in the interim she is relying on friends and family and the community to help her. she has a remarkably positive attitude, despite all she's been through. which is exactly why new jersey will come back stronger than ever. but if we do not have a robustly funded cdbg program, the funding for her to rebuild stronger, simply may not be there. to illustrate just how serious

the housing damage was up and down the jersey shore, i would like to share these images from union beach new jersey, where homes, cars and people's very lives were just totally destroyed. sandy was one of the largest mass transit disasters in the nation's history. four out of ten of the nation's transit riders had their commuters disrupted. in my home state of new jersey, our public transportation network was completely devastated by sandy. the new jersey transit, which carries more than 900,000 riders daily suffered damage to all 12 of the rail lines. the electrical substations were destroyed, hundreds of cars and locomotives were submerged, some suffering damage. the past system that carries 77 million people between new jersey and manhattan each year was brought to a halt by the flooding. the call will -- station provide

service to about 30 feet of people daily reopened to the public yesterday, more than a month and a half after sandy made landfall. to help illustrate how serious the flooding was, i would like to share this image from the past security cameras showing the sea water rushing into the hoboken station. where it carries more than 8 million riders each day, the damage was unprecedented. it shut down the entire nta system for only the second time in its 108 years of history. eight subway tunnels were flooded, some from the floor to the ceiling, and 12 subway stations suffered major damage or were destroyed entirely. again, i want to stress the importance of investing now so we don't have to pay again the next time this happens. where the tracks need to be raised, we should raise them. where subway stations need to be reinforced against flood waters,

we should reinforce them. and where electrical substations need to be protected and elevated, let's protect and elevate them. the one thing we do not want is to find ourselves back in this room when the next major event strikes the region. with that, let me see no other members here at this point some may come and of course we are on the sandy recovery legislation as we speak. ..

>> she's here to discuss how the community development block grant program to be used as quickly and flexibly provide following superstorm sandy. with that, go ahead. >> thank you, mr. chairman. members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting here today to review her again stand these devastating impacts on public transportation and discuss the obama administration's requests for assistance to the fda newly authorized public transit emergency relief program but as pointed out, mr. chairman, hurricane sandy triggered the worst transit disaster in the history of the united states. on the tuesday morning following the storm, more than half of the nation's daily transit riders with without service to even in the days that followed, services in boston and philadelphia and baltimore and washington, d.c. came back online, still 37%,

well more than one-third of the nation's transit riders were without service. we applaud the outstanding and tireless efforts of emergency responders throughout the region to work together with all the transportation agencies to restore as much service as quickly as possible. fta and the broader department of transportation also have been proactively engaged throughout the event. we were even before the storm hit, in regular electronic touch with many of the transportation leaders, governors and mayors up in the region in terms of preparation including some of the members that are on your second panel. fta also after the storm worked with fema and the gsa to procure well over 200 buses to provide mobility as thousands of new jersey residents as a result of the loss of rail service, i personally got on the phone to secure some donated buses from other less impacted transit

agencies, and we got on e-mail as well as the phones to try to scare up some very hard to find potentially needed equipment, which we found in chicago and shipped out right away in order to get the path service up and running. that's the governors do a great deal more to be done. president obama's supplemental request for assassins -- disaster assistance seeks 644 billion, the department of transportation share of the request is 12.07 billion, and of the 11.7 billion, the majority would directly support the fda's efforts to replace and repair and make it more resilient. these funds would be administered through the fda's new public transportation elite program and want to thank you, mr. chairman and the rest of the senate banking committee for its leadership in establishing this program and map 21 just a few months ago. the administration, i read -- we

are very grateful to senate appropriations committee for responding to the president's request or eight under this new program. the support of both committees with both timely as our new emergency relief program strengthens fta's authority to provide financial disaster assistance in times of greatest need, and to better coordinate with our partners at fema. fta's request reflects two major priorities. first we are requesting $6.2 billion of aid to repair and restore public transportation infrastructure in the affected areas of new york, new jersey, also lesser amounts in places like connecticut and other states along the eastern seaboard. fta staff and contractors are now working side-by-side under a fema nation as simon to conduct damage assessment and cost validation work for both operating capital cost needed to restore and rebuild transit

capacity. these early joint efforts should allow us to compensate the impacted transit agencies probably once a assistance is made available by congress. this is sort of a first time effort to get fta contractors, fta staff and field people working side-by-side to the cost validation quickly, and encounter one another so we have one common cost estimate and the ability to compensate people more rapidly. second, the administration has requested 5.5 billion to make transit facilities more resilient. to better withstand severe coastal flooding and other weather related challenges. this country and its people cannot afford to endure the loss of life and properties as occurred from catastrophic events, repeat themselves over and over again. the sums needed to harden transit systems to protect them from such disasters can far outweigh the cost to repair and restore them multiple times. under our budget request, funds

invested in projects to mitigate against these disasters will be guided by regional response plans with guidance and assisted from fta and other federal agencies along with state and local governments. indeed, regional cooperation will be absolutely critical to this effort the president obama as you know this month establish a hurricane cindy rebuilding task force under the leadership of secretary donovan. john porcari and i went up to new york just last week to sit with the heads of new jersey transit, the mda, representatives from amtrak as well as the port authority to start the regional discussion off, to make sure that folks are working in a cooperative way, to make sure that they identify and we have a process to identify the most cost-effective mitigation efforts. it's going to be critical that the legion -- work well together on this. it's really quite possible that if not done correctly, one

litigation investment could worsen the potential damage on a neighboring transit as it. this needs to be done in a coordinated fashion that bridges all of the local players, all of the local agencies, state and local government to make sure that the impact of hurricane stan the don't repeat themselves. i see i'm already over my time, so without i will submit the rest of the statement for the record. thank you. >> thank you, administrator. madam secretary. >> good morning, chairman menendez, members of the subcommittee. thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding the recovery from superstorm sandy. in my role as deputy assistant secretary for grant programs at hud i am responsible for the community development block grant program, better known as cdbg. it is a fast recovery grant and home program. the cdbg disaster recovery pro gram is critical to helping communities recover from and rebuild after natural disasters

like superstorm sandy. this morning i will discuss in this impact on housing and the work that hud has started, and will continue for long-term recovery in the region. additional details on these points and on secretary donovan's role as head of the presidents sandy recovery task force are provided in my written test my. hurricane sandy and then the ether -- the northeastern had impacts from virginia to rhode island. especially hard hit were in new york and new jersey, two of our nation's critical economic engines. one of the major aspects of storms like sandy is damage to homes and apartments, displacing homes and families. more than 150,000 housing units experienced substantial flooding as a result of sandy. this means that housing will be a crucial part of the recovery and rebuilding effort. in new jersey alone, over 44,000

primary residences had flooding, more than half experiencing at least a foot of flooding. we project that about half the damaged primary homes in new jersey were occupied by low and moderate income households. our research staff has also identified approximately 500 neighborhoods in new york, new jersey, and connecticut where more than 20% of the homes were damaged, more than 175 of these neighborhoods are in new jersey. hud is already assisting state and local government. immediately following the storm, we hosted technical assistance with these grantees helped him understand how existing resources such as cdbg can be used in response and recovery efforts. further, hud has issued a waiver that makes it easier to find for energy needs. as you know, the proposed supplemental appropriation for

sandy's recovery and rebuilding includes $17 billion for disaster recovery. this proposed allocation will provide the necessary resources to plan and implement long-term recovery in the region while helping impacted communities successfully mitigate future risk of disaster or to prevent losses of this magnitude from reoccurring. mitigation is not just sensible but it is cost effective. mitigation efforts offer $41 return on investment by preventing future damage. for example, in hope indiana 2008 cdbg-disaster recovery allocation of $40 million allowed for the rebuilding of stronger and safer water and wastewater facilities that have operated since then without disruption, despite subsequent severe storms and flooding. previous disaster response efforts have proven the cdbg

offers important flexibility and effectiveness by allowing jurisdictions to define long-term housing and infrastructure recovery programs based on their specific needs. our experience also demonstrates the important early appropriations so that it is clear that the funds will be available and planning efforts can include the full range of needs. major infrastructure investments take time to spend out, permitting and safety requirements. but state and local governments are unlikely to proceed with these efforts without assurance that they have funding to implement the project. furthermore after katrina the state of louisiana waited for more than 10 months for its second appropriations before launching its new homeownership assistance program. this delayed much-needed assistance in more than 100,000 households. i should also note the cdbg disaster recovery funds are not actually drawn from the treasury

until shortly before actual payments are made. but they guarantee that these funds will be available is necessary to move the project forward. the administration urges congress to pass the supplemental appropriations bill as soon as possible to get affected states and communities the support they need to recover and rebuild. thank you for the opportunity to testify. i would be pleased to answer any questions you may have. >> thank you both for your testimony. there's a lot of important things here, both in your old testament as well as your written testimony. secretary chavez said, you say that neo can new jersey combined employ 12 points 7 million workers, or 10% of the entire united states employment. and that they are an estimated 11% of gdp nationally. or about $1.4 trillion nationally. dealt with those figures make the compelling case that the disaster supplement is not just,

it's not just about building or rebuilding a huge base, but is helping to rebuild at the same time and nationally economy? >> yes. we completely agree with that, chairman. as you said it's not only critical for the regional economy but this effort is critical for the national economy. if we can't in new york and new jersey to workers, and businesses back to the pre-storm pace in terms of economic recovery, i think we're going to see our economic recovery slow down as, instead of before in the last couple of months. >> you also mentioned some incredible data there about, that you've determined at hud 500 neighborhoods or 20% of that neighborhood is, in fact, damaged or lost. and 175 of those neighborhoods in new jersey alone.

what's the impact, you know, of that type of damage to a neighborhood? icon in my own visit to new jersey have seen neighborhoods that are multi-generational in terms of their calling a part of the community, you know, their neighborhood, their home. as a matter fact i had a conference call that day or two ago with a whole host of our mayors, and mayor kelleher of toms river told me he lost 20% of his entire ratable base. 20% of his ratable base. when he was 20% of your ratable base, i was in there for six yes, that's a nightmare. there's no way to make it up. except for shifting the responsibility for that communities costs to all of the other ratepayers. and you are dramatically cutting the very essential services like

public safety and sanitation collections and other critical elements. so what does that mean to the neighborhood? >> so, you make the case why the supplement is important. in order to build a base, not only the community-based but economic base of that neighborhood needs to start rebuilding. what it means to losing 20% of the resident of the base, not only in terms of the tax base and property values, but also in terms of neighborhood safety is devastating to community spirit and that is why it's critical we start this process as soon as we can. because this type of disaster could take years in terms of rebuilding. we have seen that in louisiana and mississippi. we are still in mississippi, we're still working with the state to provide assistance to

homeowners that are still rehabilitating their home. so we cannot wait really any longer to start -- >> is it fair to say a delayed recovery is a failed recovery speak with a delayed recovery is a failed recovery. recovery that doesn't allow for communities to plan for the range of means, understanding that it may take five to 10 years to recover, we would also say it is failed. >> administrator, taking off from the secretary's comments about the regional economy within the complex -- transportation is a critical element, is it not, if getting people to work, getting a workforce to their job, being able to great productivity, being able to drive a better bottom line, being able to move an economy? i think sometimes we think maybe another part of the country, transportation and particularly

transit, in some types of luxury. but isn't it a necessity to economic success? >> it absolutely is, mr. chairman, but nowhere is it more of a necessity than in the new york and new jersey region. we are talking 40% of the nation's transit passengers fall in the two, you know, the northern part of your stay, central and northern part of your state, and in and around the city of southeastern connecticut importantly many studies have shown that after housing, transportation is the second largest on a families paycheck. so in terms of the availability and affordability that transportation is elemental to the overall economic health of the area. and as pointed out in your statement, we are talking about more than 10% of the nation's gdp just in that area. >> what would you think, i know that you have helped fema the damage assessment, and i know you've been up and visited with us and others in the region in terms of reviewing the damage

personally. do you think the region transit system could possibly be rebuild and protect it with less than a third of the funds the administration requested? >> no. in fact, we took note of one of the amendments that's been introduced that would cut the presidential request by more than 70% particularly and transit emergency relief. that amount would not even cover the recovery estimates that we currently have, much less get to any of the necessary medication investment that's been requested under the president's -- >> that amount would not even cover the recovery? >> just the restoration and recovery costs, most of which takes a form of reimbursement to the agencies that you hear from on your second panel. these are costs that in many cases of 40 been laid out by the nda, by the port authority, by new jersey transit. we are working diligently with fema right now to validate those costs so we can expeditiously

reimburse them so they can continue to turn out their service for a year. we have to remember that they still have to live within the own budget to provide liable -- reliable service to the people on ongoing basis. meanwhile, they've laid out a great deal of money just on restoration. they depleted their stock of spare equipment. in some case they are stealing equipment from one line to give another up and running. and it's not a sustainable pace. >> isn't possible that if congress does not respond adequately, that they have to resort to fair shot? >> i think that question will be well put to the nextel in terms of how they would make the dollars after the i already know the nda has announced that they will need to go out and have going out for additional debt just to cash flow the recovery and to we can reimburse them.

but i think there is the risk of serious service degradation to the public if they can't, for example, restore their stock and spare equipment to keep the system up and running. >> some of our colleagues seem to think that any attempt to rebuild our transit systems with an eye towards medication and making them stronger for the future is a waste of money. what is your prospective? >> well, one thing that came clear, sort of after action look at all this which gave rise to the president's request, is we know now, and, indeed, you know, the operator on the ground have known for sometime that we have some of the most critical components to keep the systems up and running. in some of the most vulnerable areas. and i think what those folks are saying when they say we should make mitigation investments, is we should take taxpayer money and rebuild those critical components right back in the same vulnerable environment.

we can do this much smarter and, in fact, cheaper over the long run, but we can make the necessary investment to protect the situation from happening again. when it comes to things like propulsion and power, signal systems, we know now that some of those critical elements that are absolutely critical to get the service up and running for 10% of the american economy are in very vulnerable places. none of us, no homeowner that is had their basement flooded repeatedly takes the best in the air lives and stores the floor of the basement. we might buy some shelving. we might put those heirlooms up on a shelf. what those folks are saying, when we say we should make any mitigation investment is wish up with the family heirlooms on the floor of the basement again and just wait for the next led to happen. the other thing, when we had these repeated disaster elements, much of those costs

would be fema eligible so the taxpayers will pay again. we see no wisdom in that. it's why we built the mitigation funding into the president's budget, in a very strategic way. they're not going to be just dollars spread around without a plan. the whole notion of the meeting we have a secretary donovan and the impact that transit players of the new york is to start a meaningful conversation of what's the most cost beneficial mitigation investment for the region, looking at the entire transportation network. transit, nda, path, even the staten island ferry and all those together. so in essence it is more fiscally prudent to do the mitigation a just a place as it was an wait for the next storm and repay all over. ability. i know it seems -- i have a very large street in front of my house. one branch fell and went through

the windshield of one of my friends cars this past year. one went through my car. we don't park under the tree anymore. we are smarter than that, and i think, i think we need to be that way when it comes to transit. >> is your neighbor still talking to you? [laughter] >> let me add one final thing. i was pleased as a subcommittee chair working with senator thompson and full committee to create the program in math 21, emergency relief, how do think this program can help our agencies rebuild better and faster if we sent had money going through fema? >> you pointed out in the open statement the challenges we have, where, that final on a reimburse transit agencies to the preexisting condition. you talked about the folks in new orleans and katrina been told that they had to find an eight year old bus to replace the destroyed age-old buzz.

the program to authorize, mr. chairman, allows us to restore the transit agency to the service the public needs. one that is reliable, provide reliable service and is up to modern technology. i think importantly, falling on the conversation we just had, it also authorizes payments to prevent future disasters, which is why the mitigation investments are authorized under that program. the other benefit, i believe, you know, that conversation that we had with many agencies between fema and transit agencies after katrina, took many, many wasted months to figure out who owes who what. in our case the mta has an electronic grant make your relationship that we use routinely with all these agencies. we have the infrastructure in place. we have staff that know these facilities. two of the most transit and tragic elements of this disaster from sandy, the south ferry station in lower manhattan, and

hoboken terminal are to facilities that the fta had already just put hundreds and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in, and were sustained extraordinary damage to our staff knows those facility. we know what went into. we work with the very same staff, and rather than a have fema staff come in and go into that relation on the rebuilding of we think there's a lot of efficiencies to the taxpayer to have the fta still involved in that in a way that, as one transit grantee put it, we like having you here because you speak transit. we will save time and money because you do. >> finally madam secretary, let me just go back to a comment you made in your oral testimony about having the resources necessary to understand and to rely upon so that a community or an individual or a business can

make an informed decision, depending upon and relying upon that that decision will be funded at the end of the day. what's the consequences of not having the resources under which you would make those decisions? >> the consequences basically our the recovery will take longer. as you might longer it becomes more expensive. and that's what it's critical the community -- fema time and again with our experiences in mississippi and louisiana, and iowa, where, when communities understand the funds you may have, they can really take all the data in terms of their needs, design the program based on those needs, and plan ahead two, three, five years down the line because the disaster will take at least five years to rebuild, the result of this disaster and how to address that. that's why it's really critical

that they know exactly who the persons are right up front, you can work, hud, we'll ask him to give us a plan for recovery based on their unmet need and baseline funding that's available to me that and to help them recover. >> finally, isn't it in the cdbg grants that have the greatest flexibility, which i know senator landrieu is by necessity has become almost -- in this regard as a result he wants to do, and as a chair of the homeland security appropriations subcommittee has made very clear, that for example, a small business, which is the backbone, economic backbone for which i visited, you know, \street/{-|}street after street of small businesses that have been closed, and that are trying to make decisions, do i start my business again or do i not? based upon trying to get a sense

from the government as to whether there will be any standards under which a grant will be considered. because while many of us are told look, i appreciate small business loan, at low rates and long-term, to start off their business, they took out debt to survive the great recession, and now they are faced with having lost so much for them, the choice between opening or not opening may very well depend upon a cdbg program that they depend upon. is that not a fair statement? >> that's a fair statement. in fact, grantees would have the flexibility to determine how to design the program, as you said. they could determine that want to provide grants to the small businesses to get them started. and other situations where maybe the business opens to meet some additional assistance that can be determined this provides a

low interest loan, or forgivable loan. there are many options for grantees in these programs to other businesses get back working again. >> i hope some of our colleagues, and arthur staff, are listening to this testimony because the reality is i think with some of these mms on the floor that were offered, to say the least at a moment of national imperative, not only do not have the spirit of what america is all about. this is the united states of america. there's a reason we call ourselves the united states of america, because we respond collectively to the needs of our citizens regardless of what part of the country they are from. and we cannot get that type of recovery that both we and the nation need unless we have a more robust response. i want to thank you both for your testimony. i appreciate. i know we look forward to continuing to work with you.

and as you depart, let me call up and introduce our next panel. james weinstein is executive director of new jersey transit, the largest gateway transit agency in the nation. and he has kept a cool head and a very tumultuous time for the agency. he will help us understand the damage figures the transit occurred and the challenges the agency faces to protect going forward. mr. thomas pendergrast is the president of the metropolitan transportation authority, new york city transit, they suffered extensive flood damage during the storm, and i'm glad he is here to help us wrap her mind around what those challenges are. and mr. patrick foye, the executive director of the port authority of new york and new jersey. we know that there are significant challenges. so i would like to ask each of you, starting with mr. weinstein, to give us about five minutes of oral testimony,

all of your false statements will be included in the record and then we can have a discussion. >> good morning, mr. chairman. thank you for your leadership in helping our state through this difficult time, and thank you and the members of this committee for providing this opportunity to address you today. new jersey transit is the second largest transit agency in the nation, and sandy it is particularly hard. while we took extraordinary steps to mitigate potential harm, nonetheless, the transit system suffered extraordinary damage to critical bridges, electrical substation, track and signal systems, rolling stock anti-terminals. in addition, under governor christie's leadership, we work with the federal emergency management agency, u.s. dot, the federal transit administration and partners to immediately implement extensive intranet bus service, ferry service and other services to continue to deliver essential public transportation to our region's transit riders.

but thank you sandy has shown we cannot merely restore our rail and other infrastructure to its previous state. that would leave us only global to the next storm. it's storm. its core we must go further and make the rail and other transit modes more resistant in the face of future superstars. though steps will require additional resources. we've identified $1.2 billion in resiliency and restoration projects that would be eligible under fta's emergency assistance program. projects that would improve arts systems are built to withstand storms of all types, not just super storms that mimic sandy's punishing search. let me quickly outlined a few of these projects for you. more than 25% of our rail fleet, about 350 railcars and locomotives, were damaged during superstorm sandy. most from flooding, ma our primary maintenance and repair facilities that had never before flooded or to prevent a

recurrence a top priority is ensuring that we have sufficient storm proof railyards to safely store locomotives and rail cars out of the reach of floodwaters and also out of harm's way from blowing trees, electrical wires, utility poles and other storm driven to bury. to that end we estimate it will cost about a half a billion dollars to construct new rail yard and inspection facilities, including a new yard at a site along the northeast corridor in new brunswick that is go go bot amtrak. this distilled will provide a centrally located site for safe storage and allow locomotives and rail cars to be rapidly reinspected and put back into service once a storm passes. additionally, we are seeking 209 to raise our -- power and other systems at the meadowlands facility at the co-located -- as well as flood control structure that will allow us to safeguard the most critical portions of the complex, and it sure that the parts, generators, and repair machinery and other

equipment can ride out any other storm, anyplace as they must. thank you sandy badly flooded as you pointed out the historic hoboken terminal, as was portions of the frank r. lautenberg station in secaucus. we as we go cost about 125 million to restore and strengthen these and other key locations against storms. said he also also really electrical substations along the north jersey coastline and in hudson county and elsewhere which are vital for supplying the catenary wires about our electric trains. so we are seeking 275 million to construct seven new elevated electrical substations and improved coastlines resiliency by constructing seawalls by bridges, building sheeting to prevent washouts that bridge approaches and raising bridge control houses. both the hudson bergen and the newark light rail system were affected heavily by floodwaters. repairing the light will

citizens and making them more resilient will cost an estimated 25 million. finally, we are seeking 75 million to cover the cost of substitute bus and ferry emergency service provided after the storm come as close to restore and expand and enhance communications during this disaster. real-time can occasions are vital, mr. chairman, whether our customers are attestation come on a train, on a bus, on the internet or using a smartphone. this is not only a customer service issue, it's a safety issue whether a disaster as a result of mother nature or inactive men. mr. chairman, we recognize there will be local match requirements for funding and we are for prepared to our local mp oh partners to make whatever changes are needed to existing capital program. we also are ready to expedite implementation of these projects including the using fasttrack design built fast tracking. i would note these costs as this are just that, estimates. that may well evolve over time

as we progress the work that lies ahead. however, it is clear that money invested preventing future storm damage will limit the bill from future storm really. future storm really. as well is ensuring that our transit system has a better chance of avoiding service interruptions that disrupt people's lives and undermined the economic vitality of the region. we appreciate the committees interests and any assistance you, the committee, congress and the administration can provide in helping renew and approve new jersey's public transit system will be greatly appreciated. thank you and i will be happy to add to any questions you might have. >> thank you. >> [inaudible] and other members of the committee. thank you for holding this hearing and inviting me to testify today. i'm tom prendergast, the new game today is the largest transportation provider in the country. every day the in game is more than eight and a half million people reliably, affordably and

safely on our subways and buses, the staten island railway, metro north railroad and the long island railroad. at seven bridges into tunnels carrying nearly 300 million vehicles a year. the indy is one of the few transit system in the world that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. along with the other networks represented on this panel we are the lifeblood of the $1.4 trillion regional economy, the largest in the country, making up 11% of the nation's gdp. about two months ago, however, our region came to a complete standstill in the aftermath of superstorm sandy. a disaster that brought our system to its knees. for the second time in a little over your the nba shut down all of its services and despite unprecedented preparations, we sustained damage on a level that we've never experienced before. most of our customers are seeing service, but i workers, those who run the system, are seeing another reality. a fragile system that is safe

but vulnerable. assembly line and the bridge connecting the rockaways peninsula and the rest of queens were completely washed away. a subway tunnel connecting brooklyn and manhattan isn't operation and will only do so for the first time tomorrow. we have a subway line running at loggerhead ways, resulting in longer commutes and severe crowding. we've drawn. we've gone down about 80% of our replacement equipment. the useful life of many of our signals, switches and relays has depleted exponentially due to the damage sustained by the storm. we estimate nearly $5 billion in immediate repair needs left in sandy's constructive way, and billions in project needs to protect our system from future flooding. we will repair and rebuild a system as quickly as possible. 8.5 million people are depending on. we've already spent hundreds of millions of dollars to restore services escort as possible. just yesterday our board approved to move forward in selling to put $5 billion in bonds, bond anticipation notes that will be used for that

rebuilding. we are so minute able to shoulder this incredible burden on our own and we cannot undertake these financing efforts without knowing what congress plans to do to support us. a federal commitment is needed to ensure that we can rebuild and we build back stronger. once a disaster with supplemental appropriation bill is signed into law, we are prepared to immediately after into contracts to begin to projects that are essential to our writers. projects such as restoring the rock we like, repairing and replacing damaged signaled equipment, switches, relays, damage defense, pubs and communications equipment. repairing the roadway structure in the queens midtown and the hue of kerry tells. we must also the knesset investment to protect this 100 year -- 108 year old system from future songs. we must rebuild smarter. manhattan south fairways subway station is a perfect example. we spent over $500 to rebuild at that time. it serves over 30,000 riders a

day. it was completely destroyed due to serve the storm stay and become and we need to replace it. the station, a source underground, was completely filled from floor to ceiling with corrosive saltwater. the last thing we want to do is come back to congress for another $600 million after the next one hits, but we will if we have to. it is in the best interest to protect this critical station and other infrastructure elements so are large federal investments can be wisely spent. as superstorm sandy demonstrated, when npa shuts down, the nation's largest regional economy shuts down. it's critical that we make the necessary investments to protect the south ferry station and other critical infrastructure elements. our needs are great but this is could a much more than a new york story or new york need. this is a national issue, national need. we need the federal government's help not only to get us on the road to recovery but to protect these critical assets in the future. once again, chairman menendez, thank you following this

important hearing and for giving me the opportunity to testify before the committee. i welcome any questions you may have. >> chairman menendez and members of the committee thank you following this important hearing on the greatest transit disaster in our nation's history. i'm patrick foye. mr. chairman, on behalf of the port authority i thank you for your ongoing support of our agency and for the people of our region. i also want to thank governor andrew cuomo of new york and governor chris christie of new jersey for their strong leadership before, during, and after superstorm sandy. for those of the mother with our agency, the port authority operates what is the most important multimodal transportation network in the world. our transportation assets include the busiest airport system in the country including jfk, laguardia and newark airports. for interstate bridges, among them the george washington bridge which is the busiest particular crossing in the world. the holland and lincoln tunnels that link new york and new jersey. the nation's busiest bus

terminal located in midtown manhattan. the largest port complex on the east coast, and the bistate commuter rail system known as path. annually, about 77 million riders take path, and those who rely on it will tell you it is an indispensable part of their lives and jobs. while our network is just over 13 miles long, it serves as a vital link in the region, carrying passengers under the hudson between new jersey and new york city. it is an essential artery in the region representing more than $1.4 trillion in economic output, fully 11% of our nation's gdp. of all our transportation cities, path suffered the most severe blow in superstorm sandy. we take every step we could to prepare for the storm, but despite our preparations, this critical interstate link was completely devastated by the historic storm surge and flooding that reached over two feet above the prior 100 year flood level in lower manhattan.

the storm surge breached and blasted through our passenger stations, that's why judge of before, mr. chairman, indicates, and the path tunnels, which are ancient by today's mass transit standards, having been built at the turn of the last century more than 100 years ago. that path network is dense and closely contain with complex tunnels interlocking underneath the hudson. these tunnels along with a box like structures called caissons connecting the tunnels contain racked up a rack of critical and decades old signals, switching and communications equipment that were damaged in the deluge of corrosive seawater during sandy. these waters damaged the signals, switching, communications, and the wayside equipment lining the track. most visibly to the public, our stations experience tsunami like conditions. our historic hoboken terminal, one of the busiest in our system was inundated, sending millions

of gallons of water pouring into the station. and many of our stations practically every wire circuit and every last bit of infrastructure that existed below ground was damaged, destroyed or otherwise in need of attention and repair. to compound the problem many of the parts that sandy destroyed are no longer manufactured due to their age. it has been like trying to find replacement parts for an entire fleet of model t fords in the 21st century. thanks to the heroic efforts of our staff and many others who provide assistance, we commenced partial service restoration of the system on november 6, reestablishing service between journal square and 33rd street in manhattan. on november 12, we brought back service to newark. with continued around-the-clock recovery efforts, on november 26, path resume service to the world trade center and exchange place station. as you noted, mr. chairman, i'm proud to say that just yesterday i joined path employees for the inaugural run of restored

hoboken service to 33rd street on the west side of manhattan. with that, we have restored his limited service to all of the stations internet where. we learned during the storm that the ingenuity and dedication of our public service is unrivaled. in the first days after the storm one of our workers, tom o'neil, risked his own life to jump into several feet of murky floodwaters in a path tunnel to restart a public by hand, thus preventing further flood damage. tom o'neill in his own words was just doing his own job, and it is that attitude and fortitude of all of our path employs that continues to bring us back. companies and factories all over the country have helped in the recovery. in pearl, mississippi, the employees at trilogy communications worked day and night on the weekend to prepare two miles of replacement specialized communications cable for our tunnels leading to the world trade center. incenses rail base in louisiana kentucky did the same. u.s. dot and fta provided critical support.

administrator rogoff was personally involved in ensuring decimated breakers for restoration of path service. but with path so operate at less than full strength and on partial schedules, and as new jersey transit continues its own efforts to restore service, commutes are still badly disrupted. what norman was a 45 minute ride home for many has now doubled in length, or worse, as commuters displaced from path seek alternative transit, bus or ferry service. those with late evening shifts are still bearing the burden of limited service, having to rely on late-night buses to make their way home. we continue to rebuild and repair across our network, but as is the case for the states of new york and new jersey, the port authority wanted the federal government sell. simply put, we are not at full strength that we have endured full strength and women toward hundreds amount of dollars of damage. old electric substations have been patched together with cannibalize parts. parts of our network operating on so-called manual block, with

personal communicate by radio to mark trains passing stations while our signaling systems are still under repair. to bring our system that will require hundreds of millions of dollars. this will go immediately into signal system repairs, electric substation repairs, track work and communications systems. we are still tallying the damage but we now estimate that the costs to full repair and restore the path system, may total more than $700 million, much more than earlier preliminary estimate of 300 million. it is critical that we invest in mitigation measures to protect our system from future storms so that we do not find ourselves in the same situation just a few years from now. this will include projects such as elevating portions of track, elevating critical substations, and strengthening critical caisson rooms with other tunnels beneath the hudson river. these mitigation measures come at significant cost, but without them as we learn over the last two months, the cost to the taxpayer will be even greater. some of you know that the port authority receives no taxpayer

money from either new york or new jersey. we rely exclusively on user fees, the fares are passengers day, and rinse and other fees, all revenue streams that have their limitations. we are still assessing the exact cost of repair and recovery, but our needs are significant. finally, i urge congress to act as and as possible, mr. chairman, in approving recovery funding for the new york, new jersey and connecticut region. the final cost will no doubt the height of the costs, she we failed to make necessary repairs and investments, are unfathomable in terms of the cost of lost productivity, lost jobs, a fractured transportation network, and economic output that it powers. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. thank you all for your testimony. let me start off. summer my colleagues here think you plug these numbers out of the sky. and they are all inflated. and you know, not necessary. what would you say to them?

>> mr. chairman, we've been very sensitive to that very issue. i mean, these are estimates that are a work in progress. we keep saying that but i will tell you that at least some new jersey transit input, railroads are expensive. we move a quarter of the nine to 300,000 people. those are people if they're not on the railroads, they are on the roads. when they're on the roads trying to get into work, the road system breaks to, mr. chairman. this is a network. it's very expensive to maintain it, for the return it has to the economy, the retard that has to the quality of life in our region is in measurable. >> the net worth in your city, part india ever structure alone is $750 billion.

we spent over $75 billion in repair items since 1982. the damage we sustained is significant but it's affecting our ability to provide service the i think mr. weinstein elaborate a very clearly if you live in the region and you experienced in the first few days after the storm the gridlock that existed not just in manhattan but the outer boroughs and the region at large, you large, you would see the impact that occurred to the committee. to say that transportation network that all three of these agencies provide for the new york region is the lifeblood of the region is an understatement. that would be the way i would respond to it. >> your numbers went upwards from your original, not downwards spent they did. spent very like all of your numbers will go upwards, not down. >> thank you i think that's right. as you know, in the case of hoboken terminal, service was restored only yesterday. our focus was on restored service to 77 million passengers

on an annual basis to use the path. allow me to no three-point. one is in accordance with the approach that governor cuomo in new york and governor christie have taken to we at the port authority police and accountability we are still we are going to be accountable to the federal government and for federal funds and ultimate the taxpayers for every dollar we receive. secondly, i would note is the port authority has always been out of pocket about $200 million as superstosupersto rm sandy occurred on october 20. those dollars are real, we are prepared to demonstrate every dollar. third, i would note that we're not talking a member agencies are talking about the bridge to nowhere. we are talking about restoring tunnels and bridges and train stations whether it's new jersey transit, mta or path, which exists, which serves millions and tens of millions of passengers a year. and the damage into caissons of path our equipment that was installed 50, 60, 70 years ago which is frankly only available

and viewed at the smithsonian. we are prepared, mr. chairman, to demonstrate every, and be accountable for every dollar that we are provided. >> so tell me what would happen if, i think you're all familiar with the supplemental as the administration submitted it to congress and that we are pursuing, what would happen if you get collectively less than a third of what is being offered? what is your decision going to be likewise how is it going to affect you? >> in terms of what i state him a testament, the board approved the additional funding of $2.5 million of financing and notes so we will run those debt. we will deal with on a priority basis. we're just getting the tunnel backdoor. we've had extensive signal damage. it took six weeks to get that service running again. tens of thousands of people everyday use that line. the rockaway has not been restored, that service. that will draw a large share of

that money. as those monies get drunk and and we reach a point where we are reaching the limits of her own ability to generate funds that we can use for these kinds of repairs, we will be forced to put off critical repair needs that may result in other delays. what we saw in the montague street, we believe will happen on some of the others, anticipated failures in the system does. it would affect our ability to provide safe and reliable service. >> and begin to draw down at this point -- >> 2.5. >> and you don't get a significant federal response towards that, you have to pay those out. >> we are increasing the debt service to be able to do that, yes. >> short of giving greater ridership, and you ultimately are looking at the possibility of a fare increase? >> yes. we are going for with a fare increase right now according to the budget we plan for both operating and capital needs, that would have to be revisited.

>> how about the new jersey transit? >> mr. chairman, if we didn't get the money that we are asking for, or close to it, we're not going to be able to make the repairs. and more importantly the mitigation improvements if that's going to leave our system vulnerable for the next storm, and we noticed that we're getting 100 year storms every year. and i feel a particular sensitivity at this point in light of the fact that our largest maintenance facility in carney new jersey flooded for the first time in the history of our agency. if we don't have that, we're going to have to make the immediate repairs that we need to on the system every day. and over an extended period of time, we would probably have to make the repairs that would add the kind of resiliency. but during that time we would be

exposed to the same kind of damage that we experienced in superstorm sandy, and, and the investments that we have made would be washed away and we would be coming back to the federal government and the fema. and mr. chairman, other point i think to the issue about upping estimates and on that, i think that the system and the group that administrator rogoff spoke about, putting the fta and fema and agency teams together, working on the development of those projects, working on the develop of those, that's a very serious effort and is not a frivolous effort. if somebody who's regulate by the fta on a day-to-day basis, and you know this very well, mr. chairman, that agency takes how we spend federal dollars very seriously. we taken very seriously. what we are engaged in is not a

frivolous effort. it's an effort to make our system resilient so we don't have to come back every time we have a super storm. >> mr. foye, actually all of you i think are involved in this and you can all answer, didn't we learn a lesson in a different context after september 11? that in a post-september 11th world, multiple modes of transportation are critical, not just for all of the economic reasons we've talked about, not just about getting people, workforce to work, getting salespeople to their venues, getting people to hospitals, getting people to home, getting people to recreation, but, in fact, on that fateful day when every system of transportation was shut down, it was faeries i got people out of lower manhattan into new jersey hospital. so it sent us a lesson i think that the importance of multiple modes of transportation in addition to all the normal we accept is also a security issue.

so getting these systems up and running and getting them up and running in an efficient and an effective and safe manner is not only a driver to our quality of life, it is also a security imperative. would that be a mistake a? >> no, that's exactly right. the port authority was terribly impacted by 9/11 given the fact that 84 of our members died at the world trade center. one of the lessons of 9/11, mr. chairman, and superstorm sandy in october was that from an economic, from a national security point of view, from a homeland ticketed one of you, the transportation system is critical. and that each of the transportation agencies, new jersey transit, path, the india, and track are interdependent. when one or more of them, or in this case all of them are taken out of service, the impact on the region from an economic point of view from a transportation point of view but

also from a public safety national security and homeland security point of view is magnified, mr. chairman. that point is exactly right. >> i'd like to add also in addition from a security standpoint, the integral element of the indie a hurricane plan developed in concert with the city of new york is that the mta and safety officer provided an evacuation. we are the ones that transfer people in mass volume from areas likely to see paddle surges and flooding. without the, transportation network that is expand god indeed would go in the case of new jersey transit and path. without that, though systems up and running, before and after the storm, you couldn't provide for the. so it's an extremely important point. >> well, thank you all for your testimony. i hope to make the case with many of our colleagues here, to understand the scope and magnitude of our challenge and why we need a strong federal response to that challenge working with the state and regional partners.

the record will remain open for one week for any member who wishes to submit any questions for the record. we would ask oliver witness if they do seek questions, they do respond to as expeditiously as possible. and with a thanks to the committee, this hearing is adjourned. >> and that hearing held by a senate housing committee took place last month. just a short while ago, the house passed a $9.7 billion bill provides money for flood insurance programs aimed at helping those affected by hurricane sandy. the senate is now expected to approve the measure after the gavel in today life at 12:30 p.m. eastern. senators also plan to meet with house members at 1 p.m. eastern for a joint meeting to count the electoral votes for president and vice president. ..