the magnetic storm has a potential to trip electrical grids. more of washington today after this break. pulitzer prize winner and author, timothy winer discusses his book "enemies" we details the fbi's 100-history of war against terrorism and spies and any group deemed subversive. they will taulk about secretly taped conversations with president kennedy and president nixon. tom winer, author of the book "enemies, the history of the fbi." this sunday on q and a on history c-span radio. >> and it is half past the hour, and you are listening to washington today on c-span radio and news from the louisville "currier journal" on a hearing that took place earlier today. the top emergency management official from fema says that

more kentucky counties are damaged by the storms last week could be added to the federal disaster declaration, and become eligible for federal aid. leaving the hearing, the congressman from the fifth congressional district of kentucky and the chair of the house appropriations committee told the fema director craig fugate, there are a number of counties including martin county that need federal money immediately and should be included in part of the presidential disaster declaration, and calling them dire. and of course, kentucky and alabama and other areas were hit hard by last week's tornadoes. here is part of the hearing today, and we will begin listening to comments from congress harold rogers from kentucky. >> i asked the president to approve a request by the governor for a federal emergency declaration, and it seems that fema is working diligently to evaluate the info at its disposal and the president has

issued the disaster declaration last night to provide individual assistance to several counties in the region. i want to thank you for that. however, there are a number of counties and martin and mcgoffin remain in entire need of public and individual assistance, because the devastation has torn up the schools and the courthouses and the roads beyond recognition. can you, mr. director, give us any indication of when this decision might be made about the remaining counties designated by the governor? >> yes, sir, chairman rogers. as soon as the president declared, we, and i have done this in several state, and it bears explaining. rather than waiting until we have all of the information, as soon as we saw that we had sufficient damages that would recommend in the counties that we were in, we were able to get

that to the president, the federal officer appointed by the president will be able to add on counties for the individual assistance without that go g in back to the president, so as soon as we can say that there are damages warranting it the federal coordinating officer will be able to add on the counties, and we expect a rapid process of not weeks, but literally a day or so to get the information to support it. but we made a conscious decision with the local individuals is that the priority is to get the individual assistance turned on first and then public assistance, because maybe the individuals are still responding as you pointed out, so to go back to find out the insurance and get the cost really for that, we are working with the state on getting back into doing the public assistance and as soon as we have those numbers, we will process that request as well. we are putting a premium on the individuals, because we know right now it is an issue about housing and the immediate needs. since we were working closely with the state, and this is a good news story as you pointed

out. it goes back to system of the investments strategies, and more capables of the state and the local level than we have had before, and i was watching literally friday afternoon in the fema's watch as the tornadoes were hitting and what we knew as far as the initial contacts we were in contact with the states and in standby and saying, if you need it, ask for it. it is the resiliency of the states who said, and made it clear, we have what we need, but we need you for the recovery, but no direct federal assistance to the response and that is the response to the local volunteers and to the national guard. we focus oded on that assistanc and the federal coordinating officer will add on the counties where we have damages based on the request of the state, and as we get the public assistance done, we will process that and work to get it done quickly so we can identify, and mr. chairman, that may be also where we turn on some counties and still some of the counties that we are counting in, but we have exceeded the state's threshold,

but rather than wait until we have done everything, we will keep counting to get all of the damages identified. >> good, good. i can't say anything but praise so far in the evident that fema has done. it is extremely difficult situation. because, there's no communications. the storms took out the towers communications, telephones and internet. and so it is difficult to even contact the countiy eor the couy executive or the mayors and besides that, the roads are so clobbered with trees and limbs and damage, it has ban remarkable thing that we have come this far, this quick. it is a devastating time, and i really appreciate your can commitment, and your rapid decision-making, because it is all important, and the time of year it is in the wintertime.

devastation is wide spread as it is. and the human factor is altogether important here. these people are hurting severely, and i appreciate the r rapid response that fema has devoted to this. i look forward to looking forward to it as we go on down the pike. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> and praise from republican congressman rogers who is the chair of the appropriations subcommittee and questions to fema's director craig fugate, and the appropriations process for fema for the next fiscal year. one part of that budget is the disaster relief fund which is funded at $6. 1 billion, and it is a decrease from last fiscal year. you can get more information by going to ccspan.org, and click n craig fugate as he defends the 2013 budget before the house

hearing today. and russell berman of the hill newspaper with this headline, speaker boehner to make a final plea to rally support for a $260 billion highway bill. the speaker in that last-minute pitch to rally the signatures around his transportation bill warning the rank and file republicans against so-called punting on the opportunity to pass an infrastructure bill that bears our stamp. the speaker made the pitch in a closed door conference here in washington where he and other party leaders implored a $260 billion bill that many in his caucus have opposed. he bluntly warned lawmakers to d today that a senate bill or something that looks just like it by the democrats according to the sources in the room. more from the senate side on this debate and here is senator harry reid, a democrat from nevada. >> madam president, we are

disappointed as i said yesterday in not being able to invoke c e cloture on this highway bill and i was satisfied that the speaker of the house as he indicated the best thing to do as i read the reports is to take a senate version of the bill if we can figure out a way to pass one and they would use that as the, he would bring it to the floor for a vote. i hope that is the case. the press doesn't always get things right, but perhaps in this case, i hope they did. some mcconnell staff and my staff are exchanging paper. as we speak. i hope that we can work our way through the bill. it is unfortunate and we have to have votes on a number of amendments that have nothing, nothing to do with the underlying legislation. this is one thing that the american people really don't like. you know h the town hall

meetings and just our visitations with people throughout the state, i have come to the realization that they hate this so-called what they call riders and things that have nothing to do with the bills. senate rules allow them in most instances, and so, if it takes this to get this bill done, then we will have to move forwarded in that way and i hope we can do that. as i said, we will exchange the paper and i hope that both sides will react positively and i'm confident that we will over here and i hope that we can work something out. >> the democratic leader of the u.s. senate on the floor earlier today, harry reid, and for the hometown newspaper "the nevada sun" calls the transportation bill like republicans and the charlie brown football. here's how the "sun" reports the long and winding road to a highway bill will keep winding and weaving its way through congress at least for a while. this after senator reid failed

to jump start the legislative process which has sputtered and failed in the senate over the last couple of days and more developments today on this from the senate floor, and here is bob corker, republican, of tennessee. >> the reason i come down here today in a very hopeful way is i think that all of us certainly support the highway bill. we want to see a bill like this passed, but we also want to see it passed in the appropriate way, and some of the earlier rendition coming out of the finance committee unfortunately have not paid for the bill. it is my sense that maybe what has happened in this right now is that it may be that there is work being done the try to make that not being the case. another senator from new york has really familiar with the health care debate that we had years ago and one of the things that many of the folks on this side of the aisle were concerned about and many folks i think that even on the other sidef of the aisle were concerned about with some of the game mick --

gimmickery to pay for it. there were some issues about how to pay for it, and issues surround i surrounding that. what we have at present with the highway bill is something worse than that. we have two years' worth of spending and ten years' worth of revenues to pay for it. everybody in the body knows that there is no family in new york and no family in tennessee who can possibly survive under that scenario. >> senator bob corker on the senate floor. this is washington today on c-span radio. >> we are joined by fawn johnson, contributing correspondent for national journal and all of of the news about the surface transportation reauthorization bill seems to be coming out behind the scenes discussions, and what are you tracking today? >> well, the main thing that we are watching is to see whatp has in the house. they have been having trouble figuring out just how to get a large surface transportation

bill through their caucus, and there has been some questions about whether or not they would have a long-term bill which is about five years or whether they have to shorten it to 18 months. the house republicans want to tie surface transportation legislation to new domestic oil drilling which they feel is of good political point to be making, and that of course, will not pass muster with the democrats, and they need to make sure they can get all of the republican caucus on board. they are having trouble with that from what i understand. >> well, the republican conference had a meeting today and what do you know about what happened there? >> well, as i understand it, house spooker john boehner told the members that the only option that would actually fasz house with the help of the democrats is a bi-papartisan bill that is being debated in the senate right now, and he puts forward the other option that are on the table asking them to please decide which one they would like the go for. and they may be going back to

the drawing board and trying the doo what they did a couple of weeks ago which is to have a longer term bill without a measure that had some difficulties with some of the caucus about transit. so, the idea is that five-year bill to reauthorize the thorough highway program and keeping mass transit in it for the time being and using energy drilling to pay for the shortfall that won't be made up with the highway trust fund. they had trouble with it a couple of weeks ago so it is not clear to me exactly what is different now, but they are thinking that they can muster some votes over the recess that they have next week. >> why did the speaker pull republican john micah, the transportation committee off with bill schuster on the negotiations of this? >> well, there was confusion whether he pulled him off. technically john micah is on the bill and he will be the sponsorf whatever actually passes out of the house unless they decide to punt and take the senate bill.

what is happening though is that john micah has been saying for weeks and months actually that he is in charge of making the transportation policy, and he is not in charge of getting the funding or the votes for it. that is where the action is. so to say that john micah has been pulled from the bill is a little bit of an overstatement, but it is not entirely inaccurate to say that essentially john boehner is looking to find whoever he can and bill schuster is a very good person to go to get the votes that he needs from the freshmen members of congress. >> let e's look over to the sene for a second, and that is a much different bill, and two-year reauthorization bill and what can you tell us about the status there? >> well, it is going in a long, slow slug towards passage. there is still debate on whether the number of amendments that can be, that can be put on the bill. last i checked, they didn't have a deal on the, on what those amendments would look like, but aides on both sides say they are looking to get close and they will get one. most of the amendments that the

republicans are wanting to offer probably won't pas, so it is more of a chance for making a political message. so, eventually i think they will pass ta bill and it is a bipartisan bill and passed out of the environment and public works committee on unanimous vote. there are some republicans who have a question about the actual funding involved in it, and they are going to need some time to look at a it and make sure that it does not violate any of the conservative principles. >> and fawn johnson is a contributing correspondent with national journal and you can read her work at nationaljournal.com. thank you for the update. >> you are welcome. and today on swshgs spc-spa have c-span radio. and now surprisingly they are getting helpp from the president, and senate democratic leaders who share in the need to appear cooperative on legislation to boost hiring and you may remember yesterday of a policy urging house passage of a

republican bill and we point it out because it is a rarity from a white house budget office that more often feels threatened to veto the legislation before the republican-controlled house of representatives, but today the house beginning debate on six minor measures to help businesses raise capital and take the companies public. it is packaged under the title of the jobs act which is acronym for jump start our businesses startups and for the first time since the republicans took control of the house the gop leaders are claiming the high ground of bipartisanship, and making the common cause writes the new york times with other people who have control over official washington, the president and senate democrats. so here is how the debate unfolded between the republicans and democrats and scott garrett of new jersey and jim heinz from connecticut. >> i also rise to express supporter the jobs act today. i strongly believe that the jobs act will ease the burden on the

entrepreneurial companies that have served as the u.s. e kcono primary job creators and provide a larger pool of investors with access to information and investment options on the companies that don't currently exist. with venture capital funding stagnant and innovative startup companies who have access to the research have promising scientific and technological breakthroughs, but it is stopped, and it has hurt the global economy and k competitiveness. finding miracles to help people live longer requires capital. and to improve communications needs capital and to improve innovative technology requires capital to reduce our dependence on foreign companies. so with the passage of this bill, we will promote creativity in the marketplace to keep

american companies competitive with the cost effective means to access the capital and keep the country at the forefront of medical, scientific, technological breakthroughs. you know, economic growth occurs when the companies go public, so recently i met with the new jersey technology council, and they stressed the importance of removing the regulatory burdens of bringing companies into the market, and the job bill does this. it restores the innovation for early stage investors to provide the capital that american enp tre preneurs need. and so we do it by chipping away at the, at the albatross of the strangulations of the ipo market since the passage of the sarbanes-oxley law. this bill provides the american en tre tre netrepreneurs with t they need to seek their dreams. and it provides investors with the exit strategies they need to create a well coming environment. with that, i believe that the

jobs act is a commonsense bill and i support this legislation. >> the gentleman's time has expired. the gentlewoman from california is recognized. >> i yield. >> and thank you, madam chair, and i rise today excited about what we are about to do on the floor. as has been said over the course of many hours, we are about to pass legislation that will be good for the core strength of this country, and for the entrepreneurs and the small bangs thbang s th -- small banks that we trust to provide cap nal the communities. it is a good bill, but sorry that it is marred by the topic of conversation today and sorry that the majority has used this to promote the kennard and not my word, but bruce bartlett's word, which i think that means baloney that the main problem with the economy today is regulation.

bruce bartlett conservative economist and adviser to ronald reagan said that in my opinion regulatory uncertainty is a by the business community year in and year out. we have an obligation to make sure that our regulation is good, that it keeps us safe, that it keeps our air clean, that it keeps our banks alive without quashing entrepreneurship and economic vitality. we should do that every day. but what we've heard, the ideology, this notion that regulation is the problem in our economy, is just what bruce bartlett called it, a canard. and i'm sorry that this bill has been spoiled by the antics of the republican majority. i'm thrilled that this bill includes hr 1965. at the end of the day, i mentioned reagan. reagan said, you get a lot done in washington, d.c. if you didn't care who gets the credit.

there may be only one way to spell potato. but there are a lot of ways to skin a cat. if we're going to skin this cat this way, i'm okay with that. because small banks need the flexibility to go public when they should go public. because we should, for those companies who want to go public, provide them with some relief from the regulations that might be more appropriate for larger companies. all of these things, though we have passed many of these measures on the floor, are important. and so marred though it has been by the antics of the republican majority, this is fundamentally a bipartisan, good bill. and it is a rare step forward for this house of representatives, something that i think will house every person american to say they can get something done. and for that i'm grateful and urge the passage of this bill. >> comments earlier today from the floor of the house, scott

garrett and jim hines, on a bli that also has the support of congressional democrats. it is expected to pass. if you picked up "the washington post" today or check it out photograph of john kerry and members of congress with hockey garb. once a hockey nut, writes "the washington post," always a hockey nut. during his last new year's eve john kerry suffered a broken nose and black eye so colorful he walk ad round wearing sunglasses. giving up the game to concentrate on gentler pursuits like, say, politics. but he loves hockey. and the congressional hockey team defeating those lobbyists here in washington. we point that out because it's been a running joke back and forth. members of congress play golf. there's the annual basketball game and baseball game every summer here in washington, d.c. on the house floor today, two members of congress, patrickmy hee, democrat of illinois, with

some bragging rights after they defeated the lobbyists. here's what happened earlier today on c-span. >> it is my great pleasure to stand with my colleagues eric paulson, mike quigley, larry bouchon, and mike higgins in a true bipartisan fashion to deliver the exciting news to the entire house that this team skating together as part of the congressional hockey caucus, after a two-year absence on sunday at the verizon center, won back the important cup in a victory 5-3 over the lobbyists. [ applause ] now, it's tough enough skating together. but quigley's awfully chippy and we have to watch his back. there's absolutely no question about that. but mr. speaker, this is a great game for the spirit of the conference, but in all honest honesty --

[ gaveling ] the true value of this game is it is a charity. with the great cooperation and support of the national hockey league and the washington capitals and owner ted, we were able to raise in excess of $160,000. [ applause ] and those dollars first will be dedicated to support a program that the national hockey league has, which is called hockey is for everyone. and that is to bring the game of hockey to inner city youth who would otherwise not have an opportunity. more significantly, mr. speaker, in cooperation with the national hockey league and for the first time, there has been a commitment that has been made. part of these proceeds will be matched with commitments that will, with gary bettman, the commissioner of the national hockey league, to support

scholarships now for the thurgood marshall scholarship fund, to the college fund they will help support four-year scholarships to one of the historically 47 public historically black colleges and universities for inner city youth. so we are excited and grateful to be part of it. i turn it over and yield to my friend mr. quigley. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank the lobbyists for the game to helped organize this. the game did get a little chippy, that's true. but has no connection with the 20-point lobbying reform measure that we're putting out tomorrow. i also want to thank the staff who helped carry this older team of guys, our captain right over here. for helping us win this game and bringing back the cup and beat back the evil horde. thanks to everyone. >> the evil horde, of course, those lobbyists. you heard them mentioneding the

thurgood marshall college fund, $150,000 raised in sunday's game, the fourth annual challenge. senator john kerry not only boasting victory but bringing to washington the stanley cup, which of course the bruins won last year. and here's how "the washington post" described what happened. that the lawmakers want a payback, they had won the inaugural game in 2009, lost to the lobbyists two years in a row. so sunday's game, it first looked like a rout, lawmakers scoring two goals in the first eight minutes, another two in the second period despite no slashing and tripping and checking rules, there were tough hits and penalties and a passing moment. when it looked as if the teams would start an old-fashioned kick-butt fight on the ice. "the washington post" indicating cooler heads prevailed. the lobbyists put three on the scoreboard. the final was 5-3, the congressional team won. this is "washington today" on c-span radio. tonight from politico's play-back, political humor on

center tuesday, conan o'brien, steven colbert, and words from israeli prime minister benjamin netten yahoo! >> today is the multi-state primary known as super tuesday. excited about that? it's super tuesday. it's going to be followed tomorrow by [ bleep ]. we're stuck with really stuck with romney wednesday. >> the nation with 0% reporting, the colbert report can officially project -- nothing. because we tape the show at 8:00 and the polls close at 9:00. but i have gone to a lot of trouble here. so i'm just going to report the results of something. so folks, let's go to russia. where we are prepared to project that vladamir putin will once again be the president of the russian republic. very strong showing. evidently voters really responded to his campaign slogan, putin 2012 or he'll shoot your family. >> yesterday, president barack

obama broke out the good cheer to welcome israeli benjamin netanyahu in town for a quick nosh and a schmooze. to remind americans we all face nuclear annihilation at the hands of the iranians. >> lame, if it looks like a duck, if it walks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, then what is it? >> nuclear duck sounds like the name of a terrible adult swim show. actually, it sounds like an an awesome adult swim show, yeah! >> newt gingrich very optimistic about his chances tonight, yeah. this is a quote. newt gingrich said soon he'll be back on top. after hearing this his wife said, please tell me he's talking about the campaign. >> some of the late-night humor from jon stewart, stephen colbert, conan o'brien last night on super tuesday. this is "washington today" on c-span radio. >> on afterwards this friday on

c-span radio, maggie anderson discusses "one black year" in which her family tried to buy everything it needed from black-owned businesses. >> all that stuff was there but we weren't living up to our duty to find and support them. we had no idea if we were to go to the west side we would not find those businesses owned by the people who lived there, like you do if you were to look for an asian-owned business, chinese-owned business, chinatown, a greek-owned business in greek town. we assumed the same phenomenon, you'd find black-owned businesses. >> "one black year" with crish sha thompson of "the washington post." this friday on c-span radio 7:00 p.m. eastern on "afterwards." c-span radio is around the country on xm satellite radio channel 119 and "washington today" continues.