>> just some of your calls and comments on c-span's listener feedback line. we asked the question yesterday about the debate in the house of representatives that would essentially freeze any pay increase for federal employees. also impacting members of congress and congressional staffers. it passed the house of representatives. it is unlikely to go anywhere in the u.s. senate. but part of the debate here in washington this week. thanks for your calls and comments and thanks for listening to washington today on c-span radio. >> washington today is now available as a podcast. you can download each program individually at c-span.org or subscribe using itunes. available weekdays after 6:30 p.m. eastern. access the washington today podcast wherever you are with the c-span radio iphone app or on your data enabled mobile device. at the top of the hour, this is c-span radio washington. around the country, we're on xm

channel 119 and washington today continues. >> i will stand on what i've done with regard to the criminal division, the anti-trust division, with regard to the civil division and the fraud pone that we brought in, the great work we've done on national security. if you want to say i'm a person not qualified to be attorney general, you take that into account, as well. >> there you have it, the attorney general eric holder testifying on capitol hill. a contentious meeting with the committee chaired by darrell issa as he testified before the house oversight committee. we'll have more on the issue of fast and furious coming up in just a moment. welcome to hour two of washington today. i'm steve scully. top u.s. intelligence officials are trying to drown play of an early u.s. pullout from afghanistan. the story from the washington times saying american combat forces will say there till the end of 2014 and there would be substantial commitment for a

longer troop commitment to afghanistan. all of this coming as the cia director david petraeus testifying today that the media are overblown comments by leon panetta who told reporters yesterday that the u.s. combat mission in afghanistan would transition to a support mission next year. this from general david petraeus, the head of the cia saying it was a startling overanalysis of secretary panetta's comments, not a startling announcement. leon panetta was en route to a ministerial meeting in brussels where ministers support the idea of the u.s., france and other nato allies beginning to transition from a strong combat military role to a support role. the head of mf global's chief risk officer, one of the senior executives for that company, told congress today that he did not -- that he sounded the alarms about the firm's risky wagers on europe and he did so just a few months before he was let go. the story from mf global will be coming up later in the program.

that's a company that lost an estimated $1 billion and members of congress asking a lot of questions, the former head of mf global is jon corzine, former senator from new jersey and a former governor. the obama administration has more than doubled to about 21,000 names its secret list of suspected terrorists also banned from flying to or within the united states. the ap pointing out that list includes about 500 americans. the president today talking about his christian faith at the national prayer breakfast and saying that faith is a factor when it comes to his economic policies. we'll have more on that story also in just a couple minutes. but at today's hearing chaired by darrell issa, strong words aimed at the attorney general on a number of issues including fast and furious, that program that involved the death of at least one border patrol officer along the u.s./mexican border. the attorney general said he would consider demands for information with one exception. he said the justice department

was inclined to follow tradition of withholding some internal documents about congressional inquiries and he said the department needs to do so in order to preserve the ability to get candid advice from top officials. that issue came up because congressman issa is looking for more information about the gun smuggling information known as operation fast and furious and taking some questions from the members of the committee, including blake farnhold, a republican from texas on the question of whether or not the attorney general should step down. >> mr. attorney general, i want to follow up on something mr. ross says because i think we're looking at management and how the d. o.j. is managed. i think you told him you were informed about agent terry's death but never heard anything back about it being associated with the guns that walked. i'm the kind of person, maybe our management styles are different, if an employee under my charge was killed in the line of duty, i would want to be

briefed almost on a daily basis as to how that investigation is going. so i just am asking again, you didn't hear for quite some time that the fast and furious guns were involved in this? >> well, no, that's correct. i didn't hear about that for a whi while. i mean, you know, to draw a distinction here and i'm almost hesitant to do this, we are talking about a brave law enforcement officer. well, that doesn't matter. i was brought up to date about you know, the ongoing investigation, what we were doing at the justice department. but did not hear anything about the connection between that death and the gun walking tactics until, as i said, february of 2011. >> all right. you know, we've been investigating fast and furious for some time. y'all have been looking at it

internally. you've constantly blamed the atf for the u.s. attorney's office in arizona i think. mr. gowdy has made it clear through some of his questions is actually has gone up to justice. but i just don't see you all doing anything. there were several questions earlier what you've done and nobody's been disciplined and nobody's been fired. there hasn't even been a letter put in. i don't think that's good management. i think that's the reason many of my colleagues, myself included have suggested it might be time for you to resign. my question is knowing what you know about the handling of operation past and furious, do you believe you're capable of running the top law enforcement agency in this country? and can you tell taxpayers that you're the most qualified person to manage the department of justice? >> first off, let me just say, we have -- i have not blamed the people in phoenix either atf or the u.s. attorney's office

there. they're good people down there. they work hard. i'm not going to allow that to stand in the record. i'm not blaming anybody. we want to find out who in those office might have been responsible as well as who in main justice is responsible. >> don't you think 13 months is a little long to run that investigation. >> i don't have the ability to do a top to bottom investigation here because of the inspector general's investigation and i've got to respect that. now, with regard to my capacities to run this department, you know, i'll let the record speak for itself. people have a different view, different views in this room about fast and furious and my role in it. >> let me move on. i just have a limited amount of time. you indicated -- >> you asked a question. questioning whether or not i should resign. i don't have a chance to respond? >> that's fine. >> thank you. so if you're going to judge me and ask me to resign as you have, and as have some of your colleagues, you know, you've asked a broad question and how you judge that, well, you look at everything that i've done in

this department for the past three years. and you look at the department and the state that it was in when i got here. a dispirited department that had gone through scandals, that had the traditions of the department turn on its head. it had been politicized. i will stand on what i've done with regard to the criminal division, the anti-trust conviction, the civil division and the fraud money we've brought in, the great work we've done on national security. if you want to say i'm a person not qualified to be attorney general, you take that into account, as well. >> all right. why are we withholding some of the deliberalieliberative docum. a lot of times in washington it's not what actually happens that you get hung on. it's the cover-up. i'm concerned some of those documents are going to show some of the theories floated around that maybe some delays were put on stopping fast and furious based on some of the things people on the other side of the aisle are calling for now and an additional and more stricter laws. i mean, if there was a political

purpose to that, i think the american people have a right to know about that. so i would urge you to release those documents, let us look at them and let the american people make that decision. i'm almost out of time. i've learned from the testimony here that are things tend not to bubble up to your desk very often. i wanted to make sure you were aware of an operation with the dea that has twos houston-texas based pilots being detained in pan na man over money laundering. i did want to make sure it had bubbled up to your level. >> that was part of the exchange with congressman fahrenheit hold, some sharp questions to the attorney general on the issue of fast and furious and the growing chorus of at least some republicans in the u.s. house of representatives calling on the attorney general to step down. the obama administration has more than doubled to about 21,000 -- let me rephrase that.

the labor department out with its new four-week average of unemployment claims falling to 375,000. that is the lowest since -- since june of 2008 and tomorrow, the labor department will come out with its unemployment rate for the month of january. well, it's groundhog's day and punxsutawney phil saw his shadow which means six more weeks of winter. there's also potomac phil in washington, d.c. predicting the same thing. the l.a. times trying to tie in what punxsutawney phil saw and what ben bernanke is seeing in the u.s. economy. both are forecast casters paid to see the future. the only issue according to times is that the fed chairman is paid not only to see the future but to shape the future. in one area that the future is shaped in terms of jobs and the u.s. economy, where will the job growth be coming from is an issue he faced before the house budget committee. kathy castor is a democrat from florida and asked where the jobs

can be created and how they can be created. >> dr. bernanke, the economy is creating jobs. we've had 22 months of private sector job growth. the unemployment rate is at its lowest level for three years. and it's very noticeable at home in florida. you know, in 2007 and 2008, the headlines in the newspapers were devastating about companies can closing and people losing jobs, and it's noticeably different. it was noticeably different last year with stories about companies hiring. it's pretty steady right now. but obviously, we can do better. and i mean, you have said in your testimony you said a more robust recovery will lead to lower deficits and debts in coming years. so here's the frustration and our colleague who gave us the

list of ways to reduce the debt and deficit, it was very noticeable that he did not include job creation in that list. it was cut spending. we're doing that in the budget control act. beat did that. we need to do more. entitlements, there's common ground we could find there. he left off that very important list job creation. and dr. elmendorf from the cb op testified yed that yes if we'd had a lower unemployment rate we would have a lower deficit. that followed up on his letter of october where he used technical language and says the underutilization of capital and labor resources in the economy if we had better outlidation, more people working, the projected federal deficit under the current laut in fiscal year 2012 would be about one-third lower. that deficit would be equal to about 4.0% of gross domestic

product compared with 6.2% projected for 2012 in the cbo's baseline. if the economy were operating at its potential, the deficit would be lower because incomes and there are revenues would be higher while the rate of unemployment and therefore, outlays for certain government programs would be lower. so here's our frustration. and the frustration of folks back home. they know we can be doing more to reduce the deficit and put people back to work. but the congress has not been able to get off the dime and come to common agreement on ways we invest in infrastructure and research and development. so give us some words of wisdom on this. moving forward, what do you believe are the most effective policy options that all of us can be -- can pursue to speed job creation and there be lower the deficit? >> well, congresswoman, first of all i'm glad to hear the tony's

a little better in florida. what's good. there has been some progress, obviously, but it's still very slow. i made in my testimony i made i think three related points about fiscal policy. the first is that whatever we do for confidence purposes and for long run sustainability, we've got to keep our eye on the long-term and make sure we have a credible plan put in place that will be moving us towards stability and taksustainability our fiscal policies over the next few years and into the subsequent decades. so i think we've got to keep that part always on the table. i think that's really important. secondly, i think you know, we can avoid if we can avoid unnecessary disruption to the recovery. i think that's important. plaintiff elmendorf i'm sure pointed out under current law there's going to be a massive fiscal contraction in 201337

without addressing any of the specific policies involved, i think congress should be aware of that and try to avoid having too big a hit on the recovery in 2013. and then finally, you know, again, without taking specific poli policies, i think my third point was that fiscal policy is not just about total spending and total taxes. a lot of it is the quality of the budget. are the things we're spending on are they going to help our economy? do they support r & d or workforce skills or other things that will help the economy grow in the long run. on the tax side, do we, are we moving towards more efficient more effective tax codes, simpler, fairer and like? so i think you want to look at the top lines, total spending and total taxes the deficit. but obviously and it's easy for me to say but it makes a difference the quality of the

programs the way the money is spent, the way the money is collected makes a difference in terms of jobs and growth. >> the testimony of the fed chair ben bernanke on capitol hill testifying before the house budget committee on the issue of jobs in the u.s. economies, questions from kathy castor a democrat from florida. the issue of eurozone also came up as he testified before the committee, saying the decision back in december to offer cheap three-year loans toe europe banks has taken away some of the financial stress and also given a little more breathing space to the european economy but he warned a slow u.s. recovery does remain vulnerable to any shock from the troubled region. also an issue that came up last week with vice president bride idden remains the impact it could have in the u.s. moving into the summer and fall. this is washington today in the washington baltimore area, wcsp.

we're streamed on the web at c-span radio.org and heard on xm channel 119. a former executive of the now collapsed brokerage firm mf global testifying today he warned the then ceo jon corzine a year before the company went under about the risks of making large bets on europe's government debt. michael roseman told a house oversight subcommittee that he raised the concern back in october of 2010 about this issue. mf global has been a topic of debate and discussion on capitol hill since it went under. of course, the former head of mf global is jon corzine. kiko canseco asked michael roseman about his dismissal from mf global and the issues surrounding his dismissal. >> mr. roseman, you were told that you were no longer needed as chief risk officer of mf global in january of 2011. is that correct?

>> yes, sir. >> okay. so the cro is an important job. i imagine in order to replace you, it would require at least a few months of a search process. do you know when mf global began to search for your replacement? >> i do not, sir. >> okay. in what month was your biggest disagreement with jon corzine over liquidity risk of european sovereign rtms? >> i would say the discussions started becoming much more material in september. >> okay. in what month was it that you made your presentation to the board saying that the board should not follow mr. core skin's advice to increase mf global's europe -- >> do you have an opinion whether or not your presentation had anything to do with your

removal? >> as i said before, i'm really not in a position to respond to that. but again, i do think my views on risk would go have played a part. >> thank you for your candor. and i thank you for your answers. in testifying before the house agriculture committee, mr. jon corzine said that he replayed you as chief risk officer because mf global "needed someone in the chief risk officer position that was more fully at tuned to the broker dealer side of our business than what mr. roseman's background was about, and there were other issues about how people work with each other." so, mr. roseman, you have a very impressive resume. and a wide variety of experiences in the financial industry. do you believe that your background was not fully at tuned to the broker dealer side of mf global's business in.

>> i would fully disagree with that statement. i certainly had the experience in investment banking prior to mf global. >> okay. so it is true that you have a very strong financial background and experience and a good strong resume? you would agree with me there, right? >> yeah, i appreciate you saying it that way but i would say i certainly had a strong background. >> thank you. >> with more on today's hearing we're joined by correspondent sarah lynch from reuters and in the rayburn house office building. thanks for being with us. >> no problem. >> what did you learn today about mf global and what came out of today's session? >> today's hearing was really an opportunity for lawmakers to expand beyond what the focus has been up till now. they've mostly been holding hearings trying to determine what has happened to the missing customer money that mf global still cannot locate. but today really, they were actually looking at some of the insiders at the company as well as the credit rating agencies to

try to find out were red flags missed? who knew what, and what could have been done to really prevent this from happening. >> let me ask you about one of the key witnesses today, michael roseman, a former senior executive with mf global. he was ousted over a year ago. what did he know and what did he tell mf global officials? >> he was the former chief risk officer at the company. and he is -- he basically spoke been several different times throughout 2010 where he warned the company, he was concerned about them ramping up their exposure to these risky european sovereign debts. and warned them on several occasions. when the company did not like what he had to say, he was let go. he actually talked about that a bit today. he said that while he didn't know all of the reasons why he was let go, he does suspect that part of the factor, one factor was that they didn't like what

he had to say. >> let me ask you about former chief executive jon corzine, former senator and governor of new jersey. he was trying to take a much more aggressive trading strategy especially with a $6.5 billion bet on the european debt. explain that. >> prior to his arrival, mf global, it wasn't really a company that was very well-known outside of the futures business. it was primarily a futures brokerage firm. it had been losing money up till when corzine took over as ceo. part of the strategy that he has talked about in testimony here that he wanted to do was convert the business model to more of an investment bank type of model. what some say is similar to the goldman sachs model that they have. one area he thought they could use to make more money were these bets on european sovereign debt. >> there was one exchange with michael coppian know, a democrat from massachusetts and the keefe risk officer for moody's,

richard kantor. >> mr. kantor, your baa 2, pretty low? >> there's no rating that's a good rating or a bad rating. we will have a lot of issuance in the u.s. >> having received ratings in the past, i would not just respectfully -- almost irrespectively disagree. when you get that rating, you damn well want a good one. we know the difference between a baa and an a. you don't? >> i meet with issuers very regularly. some of them are supremely pleased to get a caa 1 rating instead of a 2 rating. >> you tell me your ratings don't mean a damn thing? >> there's a trillion dollar junk bond market pre day. there's junk bonds issued. >> but it doesn't matter what rating you rate them? then why bother? i don't want to get down this path. you can avoid the questions up to a point. i'll get you in a minute.

>> from today's hearing, we're joined again by sarah lynch of reuters. explain what that was all about. >> the credit rating agencies have been under great scrutiny since the financial crisis for giving rosy ratings to toxic subprime mortgage bonds. now this issue of hem not doing a good job is coming up again at mf global. in may of 2011, mn global had disclosed that it had this $6.3 billion exposure to european sovereign debt in a 10 k filing with the sec. and despite that being out there in the public be fear, neither of the ratings agencies took any action until october that moodies had downgraded them to near junk status the 24th of october and downgraded them again to junk not till october 27th and s&p didn't downgrade them till the actual day of the bankruptcy. so it raises a lot of questions about what they're doing, why

they didn't see red flags and could this have been spotted sooner. >> and so from your standpoint as somebody covering this story, where does it go next? >> well,ern the chairman of the subcommittee of investigations and oversight for the house financial services committee revealed today that they're going to keep having hearings on mf global. they want to get a little bit more obviously into what happened to the money. and what to do once we find out where it went because ta still hasn't been fully determined. and they're actually going to come out with a report at some point. she didn't put a timeline on it, but they want to explore pretty much everything in the report from how this happened, corporate governance problems in the company potentially, the credit rating agencies and their performance and jon corzine, obviously his role in this whole thing. so we can expect to see a report at some time. i just don't know when. >> at any point, did you learn

as to whether or not jon corzine did anything illegal? >> that is really yet to be determined. i'm sure the doj is actively looking at that. you know, i haven't really heard any lawmakers say anything like that, but there's certainly a lot of rhetoric. maxine waters today was very quick to make sure to point out that corzine was leading this company and every twist and turn of what they were doing in terms of changing the strategy and was very much hands on. randy nuegebauer also making similar statements and referring to reports out in the media about him using his blackberry 0 make trades for the company. so there's certainly rhetoric on that, but i don't know yet, i mean, there's been no evidence yet of any criminal liability on his part and that's still you know, very much an active investigation. >> sarah lynch who covers the financial beat for reuters, the story available online at reuters.com. thanks for being with us.

>> sure, thank you. >> this is washington today on c-span radio. the dow fell 11, nasdaq was up 11, s&p was up 1. offshore wind farms from new jersey to virginia are being studied and are closer to reality. officials say a review showed that the renewable energy resource would leave no major environmental damage. projects off the coast of maryland, delaware, virginia and new jersey currently under study. congressman dan lundgren, republican of california has introduced a bill this week to offer a $1 billion prize to the first u.s. incorporated auto company that can sell 60,000 gasoline powered cars that get 100 miles per gallon. he's calling it the excellent in energy efficiency act. and this is the answer to the democrats' push for the development of gas electric or all electric cars. the flat prize also a departure from current government incentives to buy green vehicles

which some estimate could cost the customer several billion dollars. a congressman from california wants an investigator to determine whether a park reigner used excess i be force when she used a stun gun on a man walking his dogs. she said the use of the gun appeared to be unwarranted. the man was walking his dog off leash in violation of park rules and gave the ranger a pals fame and refused to remain on the scene. the food and drug administration has said it's found low levels of fungicide in samples taken from florida orange juice manufacturers. the orange juice will not be recalled from stores or destroyed. the juice was mixed with juice or concentrate from brazil where that fungicide is used. and north carolina congressman heath shuler has announced he's not going to seek re-election to the house. he is a former professional

football player on the washington redskins at one point and a frequent critic of nancy pelosi. he is not going to seek a fourth term. back in a minute with more washington today. >> ray mabus, our guest of this sunday on q & a on c-span radio. our guest will talk about his military career and his political career and his role as the 75th navy secretary. mabis will describe his goals for the u.s. navy. he wants to make half of all the energy used by the navy, including the u.s. marines, originate from nonfossil fuel sources by the year 2020. ray mabus, navy secretary, this sunday, 8:00 p.m. eastern on q & a here on c-span radio. >> and welcome back to washington today on c-span radio. it's official. after months