two-year $109 billion transportation bill that he says that the senate will pass this week, more votes expected tomorrow in the senate chamber, the senate is in session this week, the house of representatives is out. votes on the transportation bill could come next week in the house. welcome to hour two of washington today on c-span radio investigating the shooting that took place over in afghanistan, probable cause has been found holding an american soldier that in that rampage that killed 16 afghan civilians. he's accused of leaving a u.s. base in the kandahar province and gunning down the afghan civilians. the president, again, pressing his shock and dismay. he did so in the rose garden earlier today. news on the economy, more optimism today from the federal reserve both about the u.s.

economy and about europe's debt crisis, this following a one-day meeting of the fed which released a statement that employment should gradually decline. wall street liking the news from the fed, the dow up 218 points, closing at 13,178. the nasdaq closing above 3,000. up 56%. by the way, cnbc report that can the fed did say that a number of leading banks including citigroup and suntrust don't have enough capital under the stress test of the big banks. and it's primary day, republicans hoping to take on president obama today are competing for a 107 delegates. 47 in alabama, 37 in mississippi. 17 in hawaii. and 6 more in caucuses in america samoa.

a you can watch it on c-span television. and on the democratic side of the aisle, union workers planning to flex their muscle it's endorsing the president in his own re-election bid and it says it will mount a massive door to door effort across the board in a way to counter a flood of money. our lead story this hour the transportation bill, you heard from senator harry reid. the senate is undertaking a series of votes on packages of amendments that have been akreeed to by both senate and house. we begin with senator jim demint. it will end all energy tax subsidies. part of this transportation

bill. we have all complained about these major corporations that don't pay any taxes. >> please, let there be order. thank you. the senator from south carolina may begin at this time. >> we all complained about the corporations that don't pay any taxes only to find that many times that's because we offer some tax subsidy that allows them to get out of taxes. we complained for subsidies for big oil and natural gas, we have given subsidies for companies that got out of business. temporary tax policy for whatever we're trying to do does not work. this amendment eliminates the tax subsidies the loopholes that we talked about not only for big oil but for all of the energy tax credits. folks if we let the market work, we'll have wind and solar but we'll have it in a way that doesn't waste the money of hard-working taxpayers. i encourage you're sport.

let's get rid of subsidies. lower the corporate tax rate and let our country work. >> senator from -- senator from montana. >> mr. president, this amendment does two things -- first, it increases taxes. on businessmen and women trying to find some alternative energy for this country. it increases taxes on those men and women. second, it eases that revenue, by increasing the taxes on individuals and lowering the corporate tax rate. second, it repeals credits and deductions on one section on the energy industry. the renewables. the alternatives.

it doesn't for conventional. number one, this raises taxes on individuals and lowers the corporate tax and number two it's unbalanced because it reduces credits and deductions. it's unbalanced. i urge those to vote against this amendment. >> the amendment put forth by senator jim demint did fail in the senate. let's take a set back and look at the details of this transportation bill. two different versions, one in the senate and one in the house. joining us on the phone is nathan herself, he's following the story. so, what is the latest? what is the time line in terms of votes and what are some of the potential hang-ups with the transportation bill?

>> one of the biggest hang-ups there was an agreement between the senators on two opposinging to amendment s one wanted to increase the ability to add tolling revenue options to existing interstates. why senator hutchison who is retiring said her amendment was looking at restricting tolling on interstates. they came to an agreement. it's going to be one of the most divisive votes of the day. that was actually one of the biggest -- biggest bone of contention taken off the table. the senate has agreed to table a couple of amendments for tomorrow or tonight. lot of senators are heading over to an engagement party for senator susan collins. they'll resume in the morning and hopefully pass the bill

tomorrow. >> senator reid told reporters on capitol hill that this transportation bill will create 3 million jobs, how does that he get that calculation? >> he gets that calculation from the amount of spending, $109 billion. democrats are estimating that's going to create $3 million through a variety of projects that will be funded throughout the country. the money toward rail. public transit projects. however, republicans have really railed against the amount of spending in the bill which has created some contention but not quite as much as we have seen in >> let me ask you about the

differences between what was in the house version, a five-year plan and now what's in the senate version, we know from last week the speaker of the house, john boehner was pushing a five-year transportation bill. so, if the senate bill does pass this week, where does that leave the five-year plan and the speaker of house, what happens next? >> well, the leader, speaker boehner had said, he told his caucus if you don't start supporting this five-year plan that the transportation chairman had put forward we're going to go forward with the senate plan, obviously for house democrats as said by the minority leader nancy pelosi they would prefer to see the senate brought up.

the republican leadership would like to see the five-year bill move. however, it's been very difficult to wrangle the caucus on that. they're concerned about not just the top-line spending numbers but also the numbers that have been proposed. because of the oil and gas drilling provisions that are attached to the bills. >> so, what will happen? i mean, and what does the president support? >> the president has said that he supports the senate bill. he would support the senate bill. and he has said, you know, he would definitely like to sign it. lot of problems the white house has are very similar to what democrats have had with the house bill which all relate to the oil and gas drilling provisions. >> and finally, a number of votes today and tomorrow on these amendments that were

agreed on upon by democrat and republican leaders in the senate, explain this. >> there have been a number of amendments that have come up, earlier, also in february, you'll remember we saw a vote on the contraception amendment that had come up, so there were a lot of nontraditional ones that were taking time to get down to business on the jgermane ones. it was an issue betwethat they d out. and the tolling amendment today. there has been more bipartisan work on the amendments as far as setting some of the specific in the policy there is. there are signs that the senate wants to get this done ahead of the march 31st expiration. >> live coverage continues this

week as the senate debates the transportation bill on c-span 2. nathan hurst joins us tonight, thank you very much for being with us. it's 11 minutes past the hour. this is "washington today." let's go back to those amendments. the republican of tennessee. >> last august, the country watched as we almost shut the country down. during a debt ceiling debacle. we agreed during that, that vote, that what we would do lower the debt ceiling in order to lower deficits and we had language regarding deeming a budget resolution. last week unfortunately, we overrode that. but the fact is, is that this bill violates the budget control act that we put in place just last august, seven months ago, for this bill to be truly budget

neutral, as was as outlined in the spirit of this bill as it was put -- >> time has expired. >> we have to offset discretionary spending by $11 billion which is what this does. >> the senator from hawaii. >> madam president, this will lower the discretionary spending by $11 billion. to offset transfers from the general fund necessary to repalestinish the highway trust fund. this amendment is a clear violation of the budget control act we just agreed to six months ago. in simplest terms, it would propose a cut to defense spending. i would suggest that that if you want to offset the monday tear spending, find it mandatory to

offset. however, madam president, the pending amendment deals with matters within the budget committee's jurisdiction. therefore, i raise a point of order, that the pending amendment violates 306 of the congressional budget act of 1974. >> the senator from tennessee. >> the amendment as modified, is that correct? >> the senator is correct. >> madam president, pursuant to 904 of the budget act of 1974, i move to waive all applicable sections of those acts and applicable budget resolutions for the purposes of my

recommendation. >> voting on amendment put forward by senator bob corker of tennessee. this amendment failed as well. a story we'll continue to follow this week. watch the proceedings live all the time on c-span 2. senators today, criticizing the energy department in its handling of a $25 billion auto loan program calling the initiative initial ly dormont. the government's loan program to help yutilitieutilities should completely restructured. steven chu saying that we're very focused on driving the cost of electric vehicles down. but a number of senators saying that this program just doesn't make chance. rand paul saying we need to get out of this business.

an auditor looked into all of this. he found an in a recent report that projected losses from this program of its $23.7 billion in loans has fallen in to $7 billion in losses. let's take you to this hearing focusing on this program, the auto loan program on capitol hill before the energy committee. the republican from alaska questioned it earlier today. >> one condition in the program is that there be a quote reasonable prospect of repayment. in your opinion, what is a reasonable prospect of repayment? is it 80% chance that it's going to be repaid, 70%, is it higher or lower? what is reasonable? >> senator, that's an excellent question and we actually looked at the history of that term in

legislation and it goes back quite a long way. but nowhere could we find a definition of reasonable prospect of repayment. >> so, how would you define it. >> i think that's precisely the issue, how would one define it. reasonable prospect would probably mean more than 50% probability. others might define it as 90% probability. there's a room for a great deal of controversy of second-guessing about this program, i would respectfully recommend that there's be clearer of policy goal. >> another one, where i think we ran into a situation where there was some vagueness. another requirement was that the obligation is not subordinate to other financing. i read that like, okay, there's no subordination there. but apparently there was some

vagueness there, do you think in that particular instance was vague? >> in reading it, i think that it's quite clear to me that at the point of origination, there should not be subordination. the question is, later on f a project runs into trouble or a loan runs into trouble, does the law allow that in order to preserve taxpayers' assets, do we have the ability to subordinate, in commercial practice it's common where a loan gets in trouble. in order to attract additional funding. if the objective is recovery for taxpayers, i would respectfully submit that there are a couple of techniques widely use mrd the

public sector that's missing. one is to be able to subordinate. and the second is, to be able to contribute equity and/or to convert to equity. and in this case it looks like that's ruled out. i think that -- if i can speak more broadly about this, there is -- these laws confine the type of financing that the government can make. quite a bit. and there's virtually no upside for taxpayers if these projects succeed. there's strictly debt. the government did take -- it did take options. apparently the government can take equity interest as a condition for making a loan but it can't make an outright equity contribution. i think for early stages of investments it might be suitable

in some cases for the government to contribute equity to prevent a control issue from arising. it might be nonvoting. so one broad onner is vax would be going forward, the legislation like this, there might be a wider variety of options. if a few projects paid off a lot, that might help to pay for any losses in the portfolio in other projects. >> herb allison is a white house-appointed auditor. questions from the senator lisa murkowski before a panel on capitol hill earlier today. well the hill newspaper reporting that senator harry reid and mitch mcconnell squabbling today over the legislative agenda today. as you heard earlier in the program that will happen this

week, so senator reid insisting that senator mcconnell insisting that majority leader reid, to put aside time-consuming votes on 17 of the president's judicial nominees and instead turn to the jobs act which the house passed overwhelming last month. senator mcconnell is accusing senator reid seeking a fight by forcing a vote on the controversial amendment. so, politics on capitol hill. here's more from the senate floor earlier in the day. on judicial nominations you said that you're moving forward for this because you say it has to deal with republican object vichl. can you respond to that?

>> if that were a question in a logic question it would be a flop. i mean, think about this. they could approve these judges in five minutes. so what do they mean taking it away from the jobs? the only major jobs bill is on the floor right now. the bill is a nice bill, i like it. but it's not a major jobs creation bill as senator mcconnell said this morning. it will help people, we hope, take some of the that money they have in the banks to invest it. we said that we're going to move to that. i don't know logically what in the world they're talking about. if the american people or each of you need another demonstration what it is then you're all brain dead. >> you take up the house bill.

last week you said -- what's changed? >> well, i think a vote of 390 to 93 was fairly significant in my thought process. >> senator harry reid on capitol hill earlier today. in a moment we'll hear from mitch mcconnell. pat leahy weighing in on this as well saying that the president is being held to a different standard. you may elect him but we're going to hold him to a different standard, senator leahy saying that's wrong in regards to these 17 judicial nominations. senator mitch mcconnell saying that the jobs bill should be next. >> on judicial nominations. on the judicial nominations, you called it a manufactured crisis. if you want to move on to jobs and many of the judges, the nominations are pretty noncontroversial why not drop the filibusters on the judges so you can move to jobs.

>> i think the best way to put it's a solution in search of a problem. i mean, this is not a problem. we have confirmed seven judges this year. most of these nominees will be confirmed over a period of time which is the way we have historically operated in the senate. we usually discuss these, we do them on a period of time. he's making this needlessly controversial. but more important, it's a waste of time because, these are highly likely to be confirmed in the next weeks and months and we could actually be passing a jobs measure that's overwhelmingly supported by both sides and the president of the united states. therefore, the only thing that you can conclude from this is

that it's a manufactured crisis. who is obstructing here? the majority is obstructing the senate from passing legislation that the president of the united states supports. i'm going to take one more. >> senator mcconnell. >> do you expect other republicans would oppose cloture on the judges? >> 34i hope would be not move forward with these judges. in this manner. at this time. as i have said repeatedly, i'll say again, these nominees that are likely to be confirmed over a period of time, that's the way it's historically been done in the senate and i don't know why we would want to do this other than to try to convince all of you and the public that senate republicans are obstructing. the president has gotten more

judges in three years than president bush got in the last four, we did 62 last year, we have done 7 this year and we're continuing to approve judges. this is a manufactured crisis. thank you. >> senator mcconnell -- >> senator mcconnell on capitol hill earlier in the day. yesterday, senator reid escal e escalating the fight over these nominees. the move from mitch mcconnell drawing criticism from republica republicans. with regard to the jobs bill the house of representatives passing that measure by a vote of 390 to 23. it would ease the rules for capital formation for small xaebs helping to create jobs and grow the u.s. economy, the white house and the senate democrats expected to support this measurement as well.

when it clears the senate wherever that happens. we welcome our listeners from coast to coast. some other news today on wall street the dow was up 217 points. closing at 13,177. that puts the dow within 1,000 of its all-time high. today's close the highest since the end of 2007. a new estimate from congressional economists said that the government is going to run a $1.2 trillion deficit for the budget year ending just a few days before election day. almost $100 billion spike from earlier deficit projections comes exclusively because congress passed legislation recommended by president obama renug that 2% point cut in payroll taxes. the congressional budget office report comes as republicans

controlling the house are preparing for this year's budget debate which some say will be spilling over into the presidential debate. supporters of rush limbaugh have initiated a counterpetition to keep him on armed forces network radio, according to the military times. limbaugh has been a target of a campaign by democrats forcing advertisers to drop his job. after he called sandra fluke, a couple of not so nice words. as part of the campaign a petition was initiated on the website to remove limbaugh from armed forces network radio, now there is a counterpetition there. petitioners have one month to gather 25,000 electronic signatures. if they can get that they'll have a official white house

response. some debate among purists whether tomorrow's white house dinner for david came vonn a state dinner, since the queen is the head of state and cameron's visit is not considered a state dinner, an official visit, the dinner is a state dinner because the president is hosting it. a spokesman said when it comes to the dinner as the chief of staff, president obama is hosting the dinner. also the white house historical association backing him up. the spokesperson for that association said it's up to the person who's president and first lady to set the guidelines for the administration. and some news overseas the u.s. saying unless sri lanka reck sills allegations for war crimes it risks more conflict.

the u.s. has issued a resolution for additional pressure on sri lanka to conduct an investigation. so, quote, they really can achieve peace and security and not so anger in their own community that could give rise to new violence. back in a minute with more of "washington today." the u.s. supreme court airs challenges to the health care on march 26, 27 and 28. from 1992, the consolidated case from the state of new york versus the united states and others. >> we recognize that congress certainly has the power under the commerce claus to deal with the subject of the disposal of lower level